ATLANTA (AP) — Tennessee-based Dollar General Corp. plans a 1 million-square-foot distribution center southeast of Atlanta that will employ 500 people when the plant is fully operational, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal announced Monday.

The new facility is expected to serve more than 1,000 stores across the southeastern U.S. The company, based in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, operates more than 650 stores, Deal said.

The distribution center is scheduled to operate at full capacity by the fall of 2017, the governor said.

Dollar General announced Monday that it has purchased land for the center — its 15th such facility — in the Jackson, Georgia, area, about 45 miles southeast of Atlanta.

"This state-of-the-art distribution center will help support our rapid store growth throughout Georgia and the southeast," Todd Vasos, the company's chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Dollar General's 14 other distribution centers are in Alabama, California, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.