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Tallahassee Chamber conference at Amelia Island focusing on jobs amid ups and downs

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Tallahassee Chamber conference at Amelia Island focusing on jobs amid ups and downs

While Tallahassee’s economy is holding steady, the need for more jobs will continue to be the rallying cry during this weekend’s Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce Conference in Amelia Island.

The four-day conference is the year’s largest networking and informational event that attracts a who’s who in private, public and nonprofit sectors. It will feature workshops on real estate trends, insight on Florida’s political landscape and upcoming elections and Tallahassee’s booming healthcare sector.

It comes at a time that some experts say the local economy is a mixed bag, adding more can be done to accelerate job growth. Others say there’s much to celebrate compared to this time last year.

Just last month, the city airport lost JetBlue airline service. In a single night and in a surprise decision, the airline dashed 10-year-effort by business leaders, city administrators and elected officials to bring the airline to Florida’s capital city.

On the flipside, companies like Amazon, with the debut of its robotic fulfillment center, have created more than 2,000 jobs since its September 2023 debut — representing the largest private sector investment in Tallahassee’s history.

Danfoss Turbocor opened its new $60-million, 145,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Innovation Park. It’s the fourth expansion in Tallahassee for the world’s leading producer in oil-free magnetic bearing compressors. It already had nearly 300 employees and the new facility generated another 50 or so.

City of Tallahassee officials also continue to trumpet a trade magazine’s conclusion that the Tallahassee area ranked No. 1 in the nation for its growing economy.

The public sector also added jobs, including the state of Florida and the City of Tallahassee. Tallahassee Chamber President and CEO Sue Dick said Florida State University has generated roughly 400 new facility positions in the last two years.

“How that just doesn’t blow people away,” said Dick, adding continual efforts to grow Tallahassee’s job base needs to be a priority. “I mean, that’s a lot and that’s a story in itself.

The community has to be champions for private sector job growth and support the engines in our community that are going to grow our community, like the universities and what they’re doing.”

High interest continues at this year’s Chamber conference

The sold-out event is maxed out at 550 attendees for the conference that’s taking place at the Ritz-Carlton resort.

There will be a captive audience, eager to hear and contribute to the open and private discussions that will take place around job creation.

Keith Bowers, director of the Tallahassee-Leon County Office of Economic Vitality, said Tallahassee is in a “good position for job creation” and said the overall jobs landscape can vary due to seasonal work when, for example, fewer college students are in town during the summer months.

“So our employment, unemployment goes up, typically from the months of May through July, and then begins to stabilize in August when the students return,” Bowers said. “But it’s just a small fraction. So for instance, right now, the unemployment rate for Tallahassee, Leon County, is 3.9%. So those numbers bode very well as it relates to the stability of our economy.”

Bowers also said OEV is working on 16 active projects under the cloak of confidentiality as the department continues negotiations about incentives with companies looking to relocate to or expand their businesses in Tallahassee. If all of them move forward, Bowers said they’ll represent about 360 new jobs.

Yet, since the last conference, Tallahassee has taken some hits with restaurant and business closings and losses at Tallahassee International Airport.

Perhaps the biggest blow came when JetBlue Airways announced its plans to eliminate its only TLH route after only seven months in Tallahassee’s market. A $20-million deal with Colorado-based Burrell Aviation also unraveled after the company failed to meet its lease agreement obligations. Burrell Aviation was slated to generate an estimated 290 permanent jobs and more than 250 temporary construction jobs.

Another major job creator contender — North American Aerospace Industries, a company specializing in aircraft teardown and recycling that was nicknamed Project Alpha under the negotiation phase — is slated to generate 985 permanent jobs and 1,443 temporary construction jobs and spur a $450 million total economic impact.

Yet there’s been little news since city officials revealed the mystery company two years ago.

Economic experts like Mark Wilson have long maintained that Tallahassee leans too heavily on the government sector for its job creation. Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, said around 25% of Leon County’s GRP (Growth Regional Product) comes from government.

He said about 30% of those employed within Leon County work in government, which is higher than other comparable capital cities. He offered three examples: Madison, Wisconsin, at 20%, Lincoln, Nebraska at 20% and Montgomery, Alabama, at 25%.

The Florida Chamber recommends Tallahassee generate roughly 15,700 jobs by 2030 and that number rises to 23,000 jobs from a regional standpoint, Wilson said. He added Tallahassee can do more to promote regional economic diversity and maximizing assets and research at local universities that would be a direct job creator.

“We have the world’s only hypersonic wind tunnel that’s available for research and developments right here,” Wilson said, referring to the FSU facility at the forefront of high-speed aerospace research.

“We have companies, aeronautical, aviation, auto manufacturing. We have energy companies coming to Tallahassee literally every couple weeks to take advantage of what we have here,” he continued. “So what do we need to do to create an ecosystem where those people actually just live here and set up offices to do their own research and eventually manufacture?”

Conversations at the conference should include talks about a need for a community plan that’s hyper-focused on job creation, Wilson said. He’s disappointed one doesn’t already exist and has called on the business community, city, county and school board to all agree on a path forward and check in at regular meetings focused on Tallahassee’s job outlook.

“If the county, the city, the Chamber, the school board, would report on five or six metrics at the beginning of every single, not once a year, but every week, what it would do is rally conversations, public comments, commissioners around what needs to happen to grow the right 23,000 jobs in this region,” Wilson said.

Tallahassee Chamber president opts not to engage in social media posts bashing the conference

The question is whether community consensus is achievable in a current political climate that has become caustic. This year’s conference again occurs just days before a high-stakes and bitterly-fought primary election in which control of City Hall could be at stake.

Several candidates vying for victories in the primary election will be in attendance, such as Leon County Property Appraiser Akin Akinyemi, but there won’t be a large showing of candidates based on the attendee registration.

Several top city management leaders are slated to attend, however, City Commissioner Curtis Richardson appears to be the only elected official on the city side that’s registered. County Commissioner Brian Welch and Commission Chair Carolyn Cummings are both registered and face challengers in the general election.

Like years past, Tallahassee City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow and the Leon County Democratic Party, run by Matlow’s aide Ryan Ray, question the value of the conference for the greater good of Tallahassee residents and call it a tax-payer funded “junket” for local elected officials.

They have fired off blistering social media posts about the conference, noting that the chamber failed to take a stance on local property tax increases and lobbied for $27 million in improvements at Doak Campbell Stadium.

In one post on X, the Democratic Party asked “does any normal person support this? Why does the chamber even exist?”

When asked to respond to the criticism, Dick texted the Tallahassee Democrat a brief statement.

“We are focused on growing businesses and creating jobs,” Dick said. “Those joining us see the benefit. We look forward to another successful conference.”

Contact Economic Development Reporter TaMaryn Waters at tlwaters@tallahassee.com and follow @TaMarynWaters on X.

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