Gov. Rick Scott and Amazon.com announced Thursday that Amazon proposes to create more than 3,000 full-time jobs and invest more than $300 million in Florida by the end of 2016.
No locations were announced.
Sources have said Lakeland is a probable site for one of the expected fulfillment centers and Jacksonville is a logical choice for another.
Seattle-based Amazon.com, the nation’s largest online retailer, has been building 1 million-square-foot centers nationwide.
The order-filling centers are part of its efforts to provide next-day and same-day delivery for customers.
“To make the proposed job creation and investments economically viable, the availability of economic development incentives will be a material factor in any final location decisions,” said a news release from the governor’s office.
JAXUSA Partnership President Jerry Mallot declined to comment. The partnership is the economic development division of the JAX Chamber.
Scott’s office declined to talk about details.
“We look forward to the company’s announcements as it chooses locations and creates jobs in Florida,” said Scott spokeswoman Jackie Schutz when asked for more details.
Nancy Blum-Heintz, vice president of Strategic Alignment & Communications with Enterprise Florida Inc., the state’s economic development agency, said the group cannot provide additional information.
She said the project is “subject to confidentiality per Florida Statute 288.075. The deal is still in a negotiation stage relative to where and when the company would begin establishing distribution centers or offices. We are not in a place at this time to determine whether incentives are being offered or what kind.”
She said Enterprise Florida would provide additional details when they become public.
Mayor Alvin Brown’s office has not commented about Jacksonville’s role in
competing for an Amazon center.
“As a general practice, we do not
speculate,” said David DeCamp, Brown’s communications director.
The News Service of Florida reported the current proposal is a work in progress, including determining the potential incentives and the selection of possible distribution-warehouse locations.
House Speaker Will Weatherford (R-Wesley Chapel) issued a statement that said he looks forward to “making sure this proposal becomes a reality.”
Senate President Don Gaetz (R-Niceville) in a statement called the proposal “good news,” while he waits to study the details as they “become available over the next few weeks.”
According to the News Service, a spokeswoman for the governor declined to elaborate on what had changed to help lead to a potential deal with Amazon.
Also, Amazon officials were not immediately available for comment.
In the news release, Paul Misener, Amazon vice president of global public policy, thanked Scott for a commitment to create jobs in Florida.
“We propose to create more than 3,000 new jobs and over $300 million in investment in Florida, while we work toward enactment of the federal Marketplace Fairness Act, which will protect states’ rights to make their own revenue policy choices,” Misener said.
The governor’s office said in May that a potential deal had been scuttled because the two sides were unable to reach an agreement on when Amazon would have to start collecting state sales taxes, the News Service reported.
The Marketplace Fairness Act is a proposed federal law dealing with taxes on Internet retailers.
The Marketplace Fairness Act grants states the authority to compel online and catalog retailers, no matter where they are located, to collect sales tax at the time of a transaction, exactly like local retailers already are required to do. However, states are only granted the authority after they have simplified their sales tax laws.
Amazon doesn’t collect Florida sales taxes from state residents who make purchases through its site, but it would likely have to do so if it were to have a physical presence in the state, such as a warehouse, the News Service said.
Scott’s news release Thursday said Amazon will begin collecting Florida sales tax “at such time as it is required under current Florida law.”
That means Scott and Amazon overcame whatever caused Scott to reject the proposal a month ago for Amazon.com to bring at least one, and possibly two, major fulfillment centers to the state.
News reports did not make it clear why Scott rejected that proposal, but they said Floridians would have to pay sales tax on Internet purchases made through the company. Amazon.com wanted to defer collecting the state’s 6 percent sales tax until February or when its warehouses were open and occupied.
Amazon.com has reached similar arrangements in several states across the country.
“Amazon’s commitment to create more than 3,000 new jobs in Florida is further proof that we’ve turned our economy around. Amazon will continue to work with Enterprise Florida on its ongoing projects which will include a return on any taxpayer investment, and we look forward to the company’s announcements as it chooses locations and creates jobs in Florida,” Scott said in the news release.
The reference to “projects” indicates at least two locations.
It’s no surprise that Amazon remains interested in Florida.
“We are confident Amazon will invest in our state because of our low-tax, pro-business jobs climate,” Scott spokeswoman Melissa Sellers said in May when Scott rejected the previous deal.
No Jacksonville sites have been confirmed, although sources indicate there are viable locations and they focus on West Jacksonville.
Among sites in Jacksonville that could accommodate a 1 million-square-foot center is Cecil Commerce Center, which is owned by the City and managed by Hillwood Investment Properties.
While reporters are cautioned it is only a coincidence, and to not infer any connection with any particular deal, City planners and the St. Johns River Water Management District have been reviewing construction plans for the “JCCC Parcel A-Phase 1” project for Hillwood’s AllianceFlorida.
Hillwood has submitted applications for a two-phase, 1 million-square-foot distribution-warehouse center on 100 acres at Cecil Commerce Center in West Jacksonville. Some documents in the 119-page Water Management District application refer to it as “Project Z.”
However, Brown’s administration reports the filing was only a site obligation by Hillwood and has cautioned reporters that the project should not be considered a pending economic development deal.
Hillwood has a long-term contract with the City to develop up to 30 million square feet of industrial and retail space in Cecil Commerce Center, Aleizha Batson, Brown’s deputy director of communications, said in an email in April.
“Plans were recently submitted on April 2 to the St. Johns River Water Management District to meet contractual obligations for the site, due by September 15, 2013,” she said, without elaborating.
The proposed Cecil project is designed in two phases of 400,000 square feet and 600,000 square feet.
There’s some speculation Amazon.com would start its Jacksonville center with a 400,000-square-foot center.
However, there’s also discussion that Amazon.com has interest in other sites, including along the Interstate 295 West Beltway that would provide road access to I-95 and I-10.
When Scott rejected the Amazon.com deal a month ago, informed observers said it wasn’t dead.
When it comes to a big job-creating economic-development deal, especially like an Amazon.com-size project, it’s not uncommon for a governor, a company, legislators and economic-developments executives to find a way to make it work.
In this case, Amazon.com needs fulfillment centers in Florida to reach its goal of providing service to customers, and Scott ran for governor on a platform of creating jobs, taking office Jan. 4, 2011, and is preparing for his 2014 re-election campaign.
In January 2012, officials in the governor’s office said in published reports that they were aware of a desire by Amazon to put warehouses in the state, creating as many as 3,000 jobs, in exchange for a two-year exemption from collecting state sales taxes, the News Service said.
Those familiar with Amazon’s consideration of two centers in Florida speculate that Jacksonville and Tampa make sense as sites because of the logistics of reaching the market with the quickest delivery. Lakeland is about 35 miles from Tampa.
Amazon’s website shows that in the United States, the company has fulfillment centers in 14 states and customer service centers in three states. Its corporate headquarters are in Seattle with “other locations” in Phoenix, Las Vegas, New York and Herndon, Va.
The site also lists 19 locations for subsidiary centers in the United States, as well as corporate offices and fulfillment centers in France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, the United Kingdom, China, India, Japan, Singapore, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Costa Rica, Brazil and Australia.
Its European headquarters are in Luxembourg.
“Amazon has teams across the world working on behalf of its customers at Fulfillment Centers, which provide fast, reliable shipping directly from Amazon’s retail websites, and Customer Service Centers, which provide 24/7 support,” says the site.
Amazon.com offers new, refurbished and used items in categories such as books; movies; music and games; digital downloads; electronics and computers; home and garden; toys; kids and baby; grocery; apparel; shoes and jewelry; health and beauty; sports and outdoor; and tools, auto and industrial.
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