Billionaire Jeff Bezos is doubling down on Florida’s Space Coast with a $600 million real estate and manufacturing expansion.
Blue Origin will expand its Rocket Park campus in Cape Canaveral with an 830,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, according to an announcement from Gov. Ron DeSantis, Bloomberg reported. Dubbed “Project Horizon,” the sprawling development is designed to boost the volume and mass of payloads the company can deliver into orbit.
The project will “leverage” Florida’s Spaceport Improvement Program, a state-backed infrastructure funding initiative designed to attract high-value aerospace development, according to a release.
The expansion is poised to be a major economic engine for the region, bringing 500 aerospace jobs to the Space Coast with an average annual salary of $98,000. DeSantis touted them as “high wage jobs,” but the area median income for Brevard County is $97,000 for one person, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. The amount of state funding for the project wasn’t reported.
The Seattle-based aerospace firm already maintains a massive presence east of Orlando, employing 4,000 workers across 11 sites in the area.
The massive real estate play aligns with Bezos’ sci-fi-esque visions for the company. In a recent interview on CNBC, broadcast from the Florida facility, Bezos floated ambitious plans to construct data centers in space, which he said is entirely dependent on the infrastructure being built on the ground.
For orbital data centers to become a reality, “launch cost has to come down very significantly, by a factor of 10. That’s what we’re working on right here. That’s what Blue Origin is doing,” he said.
A few years ago, Bezos announced his plan to relocate to Florida from Washington state.
The Amazon founder sold a 9,400-square-foot lakefront mansion for $63 million last year at 4053 Hunts Point Road, in Hunts Point, a Seattle suburb on Lake Washington. The trade set a price record for the state.
He already owns mansions in South Florida. Bezos paid more than $230 million for three waterfront properties in Miami’s Indian Creek between 2023 and 2024, including the teardown at 11 Indian Creek Road for $68 million in 2023. Bezos also toured homes on Miami Beach’s La Gorce Island, Star Island and North Bay Road, The Real Deal reported at the time. — Rachel Stone