Orlando is offering up lucrative deals, a capable workforce and its future as reasons Amazon should build its next headquarters in Central Florida.
The City Beautiful is among 238 cities and regions that have pitched to land Amazon’s headquarters, and there are five Central Florida sites in the running: Lake Nona, Sunbridge, which is on the Osceola and Orange County line, the Tupperware Center in downtown Orlando and NeoCity, a 500-acre technology district in Osceola County.
Osceola County has offered NeoCity for free. It’s 15 minutes from I-4, 20 minutes from the airport and five minutes from the Turnpike.
“The county owns the land and their motivation is to put that land in the hands of entities that are going to deliver good, high-paying jobs for the region,” said NeoCity CEO Chester Kennedy.
The land value is worth more than $400 million.
What no one is disclosing is tax incentives in the proposal.
Each site is working together with the goal of getting Amazon’s attention, and then each property can later offer its own tax deals.
“A lot of those conversations have helped us not just in the dialogue with Amazon, but with other people that potentially have interest in coming here,” said Kennedy.
Amazon will not make a decision until next year.
The headquarters would mean about 50,000 high-paying jobs for the area.
Cox Media Group
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