FedEx Ground broke ground this morning on a new 103,000-square-foot distribution center in Roanoke.

The facility will be able to process 50,000 packages per day, up nearly 30,000 from the current FedEx regional facility in Salem, the company said. Eighty trucks a day will be dispatched from the center.

The company says the project, off U.S. 460 in the Roanoke Centre for Industry and Technology, is a $12.65 million investment.

The new distribution center will be built on property that once housed Vishay Vitramon, a manufacturer of ceramic chip capacitors that closed its Roanoke facility in 2001. Demolition of the old building has been completed.

FedEx Ground employs 125 people in the Roanoke Valley and will transfer 75 jobs from its existing facility once the new location is completed, the company said today. The other 50 FedEx Home Delivery jobs will remain at the Salem location.

The company has said that the new distribution center is expected to be completed by early fall 2013.

FedEx officials said the investment is part of a nationwide expansion to boost daily package volume capacity and enhance the speed and service capabilities of the FedEx Ground network.