Big news from Amazon indicates that the tech monolith is looking to push further into the Sunshine State, adding to already significant investments in Florida’s state economy.
A 630,000-square-foot robotic fulfillment center is planned for Tallahassee, and set to open late in 2022. That’s along with five last mile delivery stations to help with endpoints of Amazon’s national ubiquitous package delivery service.
“We’re excited to announce five new delivery stations as we continue to invest in the state of Florida,” said Holly Sullivan, Vice President of Worldwide Economic Development for Amazon, in an available press statement. “The new facilities not only allow us to better serve our customers across the state, it allows us to create jobs and drive opportunity within the Sunshine State. We’re proud to have created more than 52,000 jobs and invested more than $18 billion in the state over the past decade.”
The robotic fulfillment center itself is estimated to create 1000 full-time jobs in Florida, and as press release writers point out, this gives these lucky workers proximity to some of the most innovative technology around. The delivery stations would add another 1000 jobs in addition to the 52,000 jobs already provided by Amazon in the state of Florida, as mentioned by Sullivan.
In adding the new capacity to its existing Florida infrastructure, Amazon appears to be utilizing the philosophy ‘go big or go home,’ which ironically also applies to a historic delivery in a Florida neighborhood:
“A series of posts on TikTok have gone viral after they revealed a Florida resident’s huge Amazon delivery,” writes Michael Pollan this week at Fox, describing a situation where a large order shows the activity of the retail behemoth on Florida streets. “While it’s not unusual for people to get a large number of packages delivered, this took things to a new level.”
Experts in local communities are excited about the Amazon expansion.
“It’s just really exciting to know that we’re going to be able to provide over 500 jobs,” Port St. Lucie Vice Mayor Shannon Martin told local affiliate Fox 29. “Over $100 million dollars of investment in our local economy.”
This news adds to the appeal of a blue-chip monster that’s already firmly entrenched with parties like Alibaba and Microsoft as one of the biggest tech firms in the world. Keep an eye on the stock to see if this creates new numbers for the Bezos empire as well.
