LAND O' LAKES, Fla. — It's no secret Amazon continues to thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Wednesday, the Pasco County Economic Development Council announced Amazon is opening a new "last-mile" facility in Land O' Lakes.
The 110,000 square foot facility will be located at the northeast corner of State Road 54 and Suncoast Parkway and the company is investing $40 million into it.
"Amazon approached us quite a while ago actually. They looked at quite a few spots in our area," Bill Cronin CEO of Pasco Economic Development Council said. "I think the jobs it will bring here is most important. People continue to buy things online regardless and we would rather have the jobs here."
Cronin believes the Amazon brand is strong enough to help raise property values in the area and bring in more in property taxes.
"That's property tax that the county will collect and that's less of a tax burden on our residents," Cronin said.
But how much of an economic impact do Amazon facilities have on the communities they are in? The answer: it's unclear.
10 Tampa Bay reached out to Hillsborough County about their four-year-old Amazon facility in Ruskin, asking how much it impacted property values and taxes. They did not provide that information to us in time this story was written. But according to Redfin, home values have increased slightly.
Many articles written about the impacts of Amazon on communities show an overall trend of commercial real estate values increasing around them. As we hear back from counties about Amazon's impacts on their local communities, we will continue to update this story.
As Amazon's impact on communities continues to be assessed, it's clear communities are eager to welcome the mega-brand.
"We want to go after this not just for tax value, we want to go after this for our residents. The jobs it will create and being a part of the growing solution the consumerism we have here," Cronin said.
The new location in Land O' Lakes will provide at least 120 jobs and is expected to open in 2021.
Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story identified the location as Lutz. It's Land O' Lakes.
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