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Palm Beach County offers Office Depot millions to stay
JULY
2006,Wary of losing Office Depot’s trophy corporate headquarters and
hundreds of high-paying jobs to another state, Palm Beach County
commissioners said Tuesday they are willing to give the retailer as
much as $6.5 million in tax breaks.The Delray Beach-based retailer long
ago outgrew its Congress Avenue headquarters and said in 2003 that it
hoped to build a 600,000-square-foot home in Boca Raton.But Office
Depot has yet to break ground on its new $210 million home. Tuesday was
the first time county economic boosters acknowledged that the Boca move
isn’t a done deal and that other states are wooing Office Depot’s
1,750-employee headquarters.County officials said Georgia, Tennessee,
North Carolina and South Carolina have offered incentives to lure
Office Depot, which ranks 154th on the Fortune 500 list of the nation’s
biggest companies.Meanwhile, Office Depot is pondering opening a Latin
American headquarters in Boca Raton, although the retailer also is
considering offers from Mexico and Brazil.County commissioners gave
preliminary approval to a tax break that would be worth $650,000 a year
for 10 years. “If we don’t do this, they will leave,” Commissioner Mary
McCarty said.The state also is considering $10 million in
incentives.Office Depot spokesman Brian Levine said the incentives will
sway the company as it decides whether to move a few miles south or
hundreds of miles north. “Our move to Boca Raton is contingent on a
final economic analysis that includes receiving incentives from the
county and the state,” Levine said.The company also has begun to think
hard about the effects of hurricanes and the rising costs of
construction in South Florida, he said.”Like many other businesses, we
have been challenged by the unique risk of South Florida’s weather as
well as by increased construction and infrastructure costs,” Levine
said. “While other states have expressed significant interest in this
project, our desire is to maintain and grow our global presence in Palm
Beach County.”As part of the county tax break, Office Depot would agree
to keep the existing full-time jobs with an average salary of $77,269,
not including benefits. It also would add 580 jobs with an average
salary of $76,792.Kelly Smallridge, president of the Business
Development Board of Palm Beach County, said keeping Office Depot over
the years has been one of the county’s biggest economic development
victories. Its $14 billion in sales in 2005 rank it ahead of the
county’s only other Fortune 500 company, FPL Group of Juno
Beach.”Office Depot could go anywhere,” Smallridge said, “They’re
international, and they have stores everywhere. To have a company like
that in your community speaks volumes.”Office Depot has been based in
Palm Beach County since the 1980s, but Smallridge said the area’s
rising costs mean it’s no sure thing the retailer will stay here.”We’ve
put together a solid package that shows this company we’re serious
about keeping them in Palm Beach County,” Smallridge said.
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