DeVoe L. Moore Center:  What Amazon Tells Us About Economic Development

 

Amazon is pouring $200 million into a regional distribution facility in Tallahassee, an investment destined to create the largest number of private sector jobs by one company in the metropolitan area. What many people may not realize is how close the county was to losing the project to another location.

 

Center director Sam Staley unpacks the company’s site location decision in a column published by the Tallahassee Democrat. But Amazon needed more than just a location. “What Amazon needed,” he writes, “was enough land it could develop quickly to build capacity and meet unprecedented demand. Leon County is well situated for a regional retail distribution center of this scale.” 

 

The land the company chose, owned by local developer and FSU benefactor DeVoe L. Moore, was already permitted and ready to go. Foresight led Moore to spend millions of dollars and eight years to secure the development permits to allow him to respond quickly to a company’s land development needs. Amazon likely would have moved on to another location “if the project was subject to the traditional regulatory process.” 

Thus, Staley concludes, “regulatory reform and streamlining should be a paramount priority for local governments.”

 

One of the unique features of working at the DMC is a “classroom to work” professional pipeline. The Center maintains detailed records on where students land once they graduate. Over the last five years, we have been developing programming to help create seamless pathways for students into professional jobs.  Three grants have helped us create these pathways.

 

A foundational grant has been year-to-year funding from the Charles Koch Foundation. Since 2015, this funding established a highly productive undergraduate research program which is now a central component of the Center’s work. Three of our students - Colin Harris, Vittorio Nastasi, and Noah Dankner - have gone on to win undergraduate research awards. 

 

This year, these funds were enhanced by a grant from the Reason Foundation to employ undergraduate students as policy analysts working directly with their professional public policy teams. Danielle Waidley is currently assigned to their education policy team while Mae Baltz is working on transportation and land-use policy. 

Based on the Center’s reputation and commitment to this type of high-impact experiential learning, the Apgar Foundation approved a $37,500 grant to support the Center’s operating funds through the 2022-2023 academic year. These funds provide essential flexibility to our staff to continue supporting our policy research and more than 30 student interns in an academic year.