Amazon’s deep-blue delivery vans are commonplace across Florida’s Space Coast, dropping off boxes and bags containing clothing, toys, groceries and more at households from Micco to Mims.
But hidden from public view, the world’s largest online retailer — which remains secretive and tight-lipped about its operations — is also investing hundreds of millions of dollars at Cape Canaveral to develop Amazon Leo. Company officials envision this space-based, high-speed internet service reaching billions of people around the planet, with the Cape serving as a key satellite-processing and launch hub.
Amazon has rapidly emerged as a Brevard County economic powerhouse. Since submitting site plans and applying for permits in late 2020 to build its first local warehouses in Melbourne and Cocoa, Amazon officials say they’ve invested more than $400 million across Florida’s Space Coast.
These facilities created more than 440 jobs thus far — with more than 1,000 more planned at an upcoming West Melbourne mega-warehouse. Company officials said their Brevard facilities also supported 2,000 indirect jobs last year.
What sets Amazon apart is the breadth of available jobs and its significant amount of Brevard capital investment in a relatively short period of time, said Lynda Weatherman, president and CEO of the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast.
“As a collective unit, it provides job opportunities from the whole of the skill mix,” Weatherman said.
“You could have jobs that could be flex. It could be entry labor. It could be students coming in and working. It could be spouses coming in and working. And you could be an engineer or an advanced technician,” Weatherman said.
“Very unique. And that’s what you want in an economy, right? You want all job opportunities for all levels of expertise,” she said.
Jumbo-sized by Space Coast standards, the bulk of Amazon’s investment is taking place behind the gates at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. However, the EDC provided a snapshot of Amazon’s economic impact, with more in the works:
- Cocoa distribution center on Grissom Parkway: $33 million capital investment (about 202,000 square feet), creating 170 new jobs with average salaries of $60,000.
- Melbourne distribution center on Sarno Road: $30 million capital investment (about 143,000 square feet), creating 140 full-time jobs with about 200 delivery drivers.
- KSC Amazon Leo satellite processing facility: $139.5 million capital investment (100,000-square-foot building with a 42,000-square-foot expansion), creating more than 130 jobs.
- Cape Canaveral Space Force Station launch infrastructure upgrades: $200 million-plus capital investment to launch Amazon Leo satellites into low-Earth orbit using United Launch Alliance Vulcan rockets.
Plus, in a major West Melbourne development undertaking expected to create…
Read More: Amazon develops more than $400M in facilities across Brevard County,
