LANSING — The Michigan Strategic Fund on Tuesday approved a $5 million grant for Amazon.com's planned $140 million package fulfillment center in Romulus — the second state subsidy for the world's largest online retailer in the past seven months.

Amazon is promising to create at least 1,600 new jobs, but needed state assistance to help pay for "substantial road and other infrastructure improvements," according to a Michigan Economic Development Corp. memo to Strategic Fund board members.

The company plans to use 84 acres north of Detroit Metropolitan Airport, bounded roughly by Smith, Vining and Ecorse roads — with quick acccess to I-94.

"That's the attractiveness of this site — it's less than a quarter of the mile from the building and they'll be on a major east-west highway," said Rob Luce, executive director of the Detroit Region Aerotropolis Development Corp.

When it opens, the facility will be Amazon's third in Wayne County, after a distribution warehouse under construction in Livonia. Together, the two fulfillment centers are expected to create about 2,600 jobs in the county.

Khalil Rahal, Wayne County's economic development director, said $13.5 million in infrastructure work will include expanding Vining Road — it currently ends south of Ecorse — and widening Ecorse Road.

Wayne County's aerotropolis district plans to create a tax-capturing district in the footprint of Amazon facility that will capture 50 percent of the company's 6-mill state education tax to dedicate $7 million over 15 years to paying for the infrastructure improvements, Luce said.

Luce said the city of Romulus plans to issue $13.5 million in bonds to pay for the improvements to the roads and street signals along Ecorse Road from Wayne Road to Middlebelt Road.

In 2015, Amazon opened a corporate office and technology hub in Detroit.

Crain's first reported Monday on Amazon's plans to build a new distribution center in Romulus.

Amazon will use the Romulus facility to fulfill orders for the thousands of consumer goods the Seattle-based retailer sells online. It primarily will handle smaller, everyday items that customers order from Amazon's website, while the Livonia facility will be geared toward larger items that are harder to store, said Ryan Wilson, the company's economic development manager.

The 855,000-square-foot Romulus warehouse mostly will serve the Midwest, though it could support customers as far as the East Coast, central U.S. and possibly Canada, Wilson said. The company hopes to have the site up and running by its next peak shipping season, though Wilson did not offer a specific timetable.

"We knew that this was a location where we feel good about labor, we feel good about costs," he said. "There were other states in consideration."

The MEDC said other Midwestern states and locations in Canada were also vying for the Amazon facility.

Amazon hopes to build the Romulus facility and have it operational before by the fall of 2018 before the Christmas shopping season, Luce said.

Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, a self-described "Amazon Prime addict," lauded Amazon's expansion plans at Tuesday's board meeting in Lansing.

"We worked extremely hard to make sure that we didn't create hurdles," he said, "but reduce hurdles to get them there."

County and city leaders believe Amazon's project could be the jump-start needed to bring more development to the rest of approximately 1,000 acres of long-vacant land north of the airport.

"We think this is going to be a catalyst for future investment," Luce said. "This area is largely undeveloped right now."

Evans said the site is naturally suited for logistics and transportation companies, given its proximity to air and rail transportation and I-94.

He supports incentives packages like the one created to lure Amazon "without giving away the farm, which is always the issue," he said. "This one, I absolutely have no argument."

In December, Michigan Strategic Fund's board approved a $7.5 million performance-based business development grant for Amazon's Livonia facility, which will cost about $90 million to build and employ at least 1,000 people when it's operational. Amazon is converting a former General Motors Co. bumper plating factory at 13000 Eckles Road, between Plymouth and Schoolcraft roads.

Amazon is the world's largest online retailer by sales and market capitalization and currently employs 277 people in Michigan and 200,000 worldwide, according to the MEDC.