Approval of Amazon Air Cargo Complex in Lakeland, Fla., Gets Mixed Reception
City commissioners are excited to sign a deal with Amazon to build an air cargo facility at Lakeland’s airport. Residents were less enthusiastic.
Lakeland officials unanimously approved a 20-year deal with Amazon on May 20 to lease 47.2 acres at Lakeland Linder International Airport to construct a seven-jet cargo hangar with additional support facilities. It is expected to bring 800 to 1,000 jobs to the area.
“This is a home run for us,” said Gene Conrad, the airport’s director.
Under the terms of the lease, Amazon will pay the city approximately $80,000 a month in rent in addition to 85 cents per 1,000 pounds of cargo landed at the airport and a 3-cent surcharge per gallon of fuel. The company has the option to expand on an adjoining 62 acres and renew the agreement up to three times at 10 years each, for a total of 50 years.
Lakeland resident Julie Fancelli voiced concerns about what impact Amazon’s $100 million cargo facility will have on its neighbors’ quality of life, saying the deal felt “suspicious” to her.
“I felt I was kept in the dark, just like other citizens felt like,” she said. “I have one question: How does this Amazon project benefit the citizens of Lakeland?”
Mayor Bill Mutz was very straightforward in his answer: “It will benefit them in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said.
Commissioner Stephanie Madden said she also was contacted by constituents who, like Fancelli, felt they hadn’t been given a chance to voice their opinion or give feedback on the deal.
“It was kind of the worst, best-kept secret,” Conrad said. “Negotiations were very sensitive.”
Since he was hired in 2011, Conrad said it has been part of the long-term plan to eventually have an air cargo facility or plane maintenance and repair shop in the northwest portion of the property.
Ted S. Warren/Bloomberg News
“Our goal is not to be the next Tampa International or Orlando International. We want to be Lakeland at the end of the day,” he said. “We have certain niches we are going to go after, and that’s what we’ve been doing over the past four years.”
Conrad said that, dating to 2015, city officials have accepted several grants from the Florida Department of Transportation to begin building infrastructure for these uses. Negotiations with Amazon began with a phone call in December 2017.
“We need to keep it quiet for strategic reasons for their company,” he said. “Was it difficult? Yes. Could it have been more transparent? Absolutely, but we weren’t allowed to do that.”
Fancelli wanted Lakeland commissioners to provide greater detail regarding the number of flights Amazon plans out of the airport, how the noise will impact the community and the longevity of the jobs being offered.
Amazon is expected to run eight to 10 flights a day out of Lakeland starting in July 2020, according to Conrad, based on its current routes at Tampa International Airport. However, an exact number and specific times have not been determined.
Conrad said the majority of noise complaints received happen to be when planes are circling the airport, passing over the same homes and businesses repeatedly.
Michelle Smith, a Pipkin Road homeowner near the airport, pleaded with the city officials to work with Polk County to widen the road with additional lanes given the impact she fears Amazon will have on the area’s streets.
“We suffer with traffic issues every day,” she said. “Everyone who uses that road is suffering living inside the city or outside the city.” The southwest section of Lakeland has been an area of rapid growth in recent years, with a number of industrial projects and renewed interest in residential developments.
“I hope everyone has thought about the bigger picture for the citizens of Lakeland and surrounding communities,” Fancelli said. “It is a big project, and I think you will get a lot of surprises that probably weren’t planned on.”
