Lockheed Martin breaks ground on a 255,000-square-foot Orlando facility that will create space for as many as 1,000 workers.
Defense giant Lockheed Martin broke ground Wednesday on a 255,000-square-foot Orlando facility that will create space for up to 1,000 workers.
The company plans to hire about 1,800 nationwide during the next two years. About 500 of those new jobs will be created here, with those positions paying an average salary of $87,000.
The new research and development facility, set to open in 2019 and sitting just south of the intersection of Sand Lake and Kirkman roads, will host work that could make its way into the U.S. military’s next nuclear missile.
Programs housed at the new $50 million building will also support research and development in several industries with new technology, including autonomous cars, artificial intelligence and human-machine interaction.
The new facility became necessary as the company bid for — and won — several high-profile, high-value projects, said Frank St. John, Lockheed’s missiles and fire control executive vice president.
The U.S. Air Force, for instance, named Lockheed as one of two companies, along with Raytheon, to land separate $900 million deals to develop a weapon capable of delivering nuclear capabilities.
“That brings a lot of requirements of engineers,” St. John said. “We realized quickly that we are not going to have the space for all of this.”
Orange County picked up 20 percent of a $3.5 million incentives package awarded to Lockheed through Florida’s Qualified Target Industry tax refund program in May. The state picked up the rest.
Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs, on site for a formal ground-breaking ceremony, said large companies, such as Lockheed Martin, expanding in Central Florida rather than any of its other sites can help the region sell itself as business-friendly.
“When we have a company say that this is why we moved to Orlando, that is where we get a lot of credibility,” she said.
Jacobs and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer joined company executives and state economic development leaders at the hourlong ceremony.
Dyer said Lockheed Martin’s success should be propped up as the region makes an effort to pitch itself as a tech hub.
That includes making more aggressive pitches to companies that highlight the large student workforce that lives in Central Florida.
“So many people don’t know about our modeling and simulation and the jobs we have,” he said. “We need to do a better job of leveraging what we have here in Orlando.”