The Miami-Dade County Commission voted to sue or take other action to enforce a contract with billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Amazon to employ at least 325 full-time employees at the company’s warehouse in Homestead, built on land acquired from the county.
Amazon plans to close the warehouse at 27505 Southwest 132nd Avenue on July 2 and lay off 616 people who work there, according to an April 17 notice the company filed in compliance with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
County commissioners unanimously approved a resolution on Tuesday directing Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to take “any and all legal action” to enforce Amazon’s minimum-employment obligation at the 1.3 million-square-foot warehouse, a contractual requirement that doesn’t expire until 2041.
The resolution also requires Mayor Levine Cava to report in 30 days on the status of efforts to enforce the county’s agreement with Amazon. The county commission’s intergovernmental and economic impact committee last week recommended approval of the resolution by the full commission.
The county allowed the mammoth e-commerce company to buy the county-owned land for $22 million in 2020 without facing competitive bidders. Amazon finished construction of the warehouse in September 2024.
Amazon plans to spend $200 million to convert the warehouse to a fulfillment center and reopen it in 2028 with more than 1,000 employees, according to shipping industry news publisher Supply Chain Dive. But the county contends the shut-down time violates its agreement.
“When it comes to the private, for-profit use of county land — the people’s land — promises made must be promises kept,” the resolution’s primary sponsor, Miami-Dade Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, said in a statement. “Amazon made a binding commitment to create and maintain jobs in South Dade.”
Short of convincing Amazon to keep at least 325 jobs at the South Dade warehouse, the county may try to enforce the company’s agreement to pay a financial penalty of $8,000 for each eliminated job, or $2.6 million for eliminating all 325.
