'True economic development': Amazon marks one year in Tallahassee, creates 2,300 jobs

‘True economic development’: Amazon marks one year in Tallahassee, creates 2,300 jobs

Posted by Admin October 2, 2024 Jobs

This time last year, Amazon debuted its robotic fulfillment center in Tallahassee and made history with its investment of more than $200 million in a city eager to attract robust new private sector interest.

Amazon’s arrival came with an injection: More than 1,000 new jobs, the most ever by a single company. Also, a 630,000-square-foot fulfillment center roughly the size of 11 football fields on Mahan Drive and a delivery station off Capital Circle Northwest.

Now, more than 2,000 employees work at the fulfillment center and roughly 300 at the delivery station.

“We are so excited. It’s been a year and it doesn’t seem that way. I’m so proud of what the team has done thus far,” said Kimberly Price, the facility’s general manager. “We are shipping over 200,000 packages a day to customers, and most of them are in our local area. So hopefully you’re getting your packages quicker.”

Most employees at the Mahan Drive facility are entry level who work on picking, packing and sorting, along with quality control. Other positions range from management positions, human resources, health and safety and finance.

Customer demand allowed Amazon to scale up from the original 1,000 new-job projection to more than 2,000 employees. Price said Amazon, the world’s largest e-commerce giant, had “exponential growth” on the local level and beyond.

“We had our biggest Prime Day ever back in July,” said Price, who graduated from Florida State University and is a Wakulla County native. “Just based on customer demand, that’s where we have to be to fulfill the needs of our customers in the local area and in the southeast region.”

OEV Director said ‘strategic focus’ enabled Tallahassee success story with Amazon

Tallahassee’s Amazon story most likely began seven years ago when local economic development officials made a long-shot proposal to get on the company’s radar.

Amazon was looking for cities for its second headquarters. Tallahassee, with nothing to lose, put its name in the ring and lost out to Crystal City, Virginia. But from a job-creation stance, Tallahassee won once the fulfilment center debuted.

It’s also been a lifeline for hundreds of residents.

“We have strategically focused on creating jobs and those areas that have historically high unemployment rates,” said Keith Bowers, who heads the Tallahassee-Leon County Office of Economic Vitality, during last month’s awards ceremony hosted by the Capital City Chamber of Commerce. “So of the more than 2,000 jobs that have been created, 43% come from the areas with the lowest unemployment rate.”

Some of those areas include the 32304 zip code, which the Florida Chamber of Commerce first revealed as being the poorest in the state. The dismal distinction activated local government and decision makers to divert attention and resources to target the area.

Yet there’s no public transportation that leads to the fulfillment center. Discussion between Leon County and the city of Tallahassee, which operates the sole public bus system, weren’t successful. As a result, Amazon provides rides to employees who need it.

“We are providing transportation shuttle service to employees with stops at key locations in the city. The shuttle aims to ensure employees have efficient and accessible transportation to and from work,” an Amazon spokesman said in an email to the Tallahassee Democrat.

Bowers said Amazon’s impact on Tallahassee, especially low-income areas, is “true economic development.”

He said Amazon employees in Tallahassee earn a starting salary of $17 an hour, adding “they also have all of the health benefits to start on day one, and prepaid college tuition.” Florida’s minimum wage just rose to $13 an hour for non-tipped employees.

Amazon recently announced plans to boost wages for its customer fulfillment and transportation employees, who’ll receive at least an additional $1.50 per hour starting Sept. 29. A company spokesman said their average base wage increase to more than $22 per hour and an average total compensation to more than $29 per hour that includes the value of their elected benefits.

“With this increase, employees are getting an average of more than a 7% raise – equivalent to an increase of $3,000 a year on average for full-time employees who work a 40-hour week,” a company spokesman said.

Amazon impact felt from employees to Leon County permitting

Tra’Kwajah Holton is one of numerous employees enrolled in Amazon’s Career Choice program that provides prepaid college tuition.

She works as a lead ambassador, making sure new hires know the ropes. Holton, 24, said she and other lead ambassadors teach them to know “the policy and make sure they have all the materials they need to be successful in their role.”

Holton has been on the job for eight months. She’s pursuing an online degree in leadership and management, innovation and accounting concentration. Holton plans to graduate in the spring.

“They have flexible schedules, where I’m able to line up my classes with my work schedule,” Holton said, referring to Amazon. “They also took a load off of me financially. (With this being) my senior year, I was not going to have access to financial aid. I was going to (have to) pay out of pocket, or take out more student loans.”

For many, it’s hard to believe it’s already been a year since Amazon opened its facility. Much planning, including permits and other land use details preceded the doors opening and hundreds of employees being able to land a job with benefits.

Leon County Administrator Vince Long has been there since the beginning. He said Amazon was “making a significant impact on our local economy.”

“We just couldn’t be more happy to celebrate this milestone,” said Long, who talked about the series of planning steps that led up to prepping a site that might be desirable to Amazon.

“From an economic development standpoint, it was something that we had planned for for a really long time, so that when we did have the opportunity, we were able to sort of very quickly capitalize on it.”

In terms of preparation, Long said he’s probably worked on plans for the land for more than 20 years. The property was owned by local wealthy businessman DeVoe Moore, who sold his land to Amazon and worked closely with Leon County throughout the process.

“They’re a major player, and they’re doing lots of deals,” Long said. “I think he was really pivotal in landing them early on in my early conversations with him and with their representatives.”

When asked if there were lessons learned after going through an unprecedented permitting process with such a large company, Long said Amazon hired skilled consultants who tended to have “their i’s dotted and t’s crossed.”

Long said that if there was a local requirement on something, ‘they said, ‘How much? How high?’ “

“When it came to things like the replanting of trees or the retention of stormwater, or the construction of a road,” Lon said. “In many cases, we were met with … ‘Is that all?’

“I think they found our team willing to really facilitate a process where the rules were known right up front, which they really appreciated,” Long said. “And again, time was money.”

Contact Economic Development Reporter TaMaryn Waters at tlwaters@tallahassee.com and follow @TaMarynWaters on X.