The Florida Legislature is spending $80 million in next year’s state budget as part of an overall $208 million plan to build a new headquarters for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in Tallahassee.
The department will relocate nearly 1,000 office workers out of downtown Tallahassee to a new building five miles away on state-owned land at the department’s Conner Complex, near the corner of Capital Circle Northeast and Conner Boulevard.
That’s where about a third of FDAC’s over 1,200 Tallahassee employees currently have offices.
The rest are scattered in buildings around town. About 400 are officed on or near the Capitol Complex in the Mayo and Holland buildings. The rest are in offices along Apalachee Parkway and the Southwood Office Complex, records show.
A 2017 study found many state-owned office buildings, like the Mayo and Holland, are reaching the end of their useful lives: The Mayo is 87 years old, the Holland 75.
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A consultant hired by the Department of Management Services, the state’s real estate manager, recommended the state consider disposing of them and advised FDACS to explore building out at the Conner Complex.
Plans call for a 250,000-square-foot facility – enough floor space to cover almost 4½ football fields – to house all 17 FDAC divisions on one campus and an adjoining parking garage.
The multi-story facility will include conference space, an IT data center, evidence room for law enforcement, an audio/visual recording studio and a test kitchen. The “Fresh from Florida” promotional campaign is one of the department’s most well-known marketing pushes.
A legislative budget review estimates a new building will save the department more than $50 million in lease payments over 30 years.
The new facility “will provide important cost savings to taxpayers and much-needed operational efficiencies to help the department fulfil our critical mission,” Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson said in a statement.
The project began with lawmakers approving $1 million in 2022 to begin planning. That was followed by another $31 million last year to complete the planning and design.
And now with this year’s $80 million budget line, the Legislature has ante’d up more than half of the estimated $208 million construction cost.
An artist rendering of the new facility is currently unavailable; design plans have yet to be made final.
Officials say it will take three to five years to construct the facility. FDACS will seek most of the remaining money needed to finish the project in the next legislative session in 2025.
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X: @CallTallahassee.
