Brevard Anchors Florida Semiconductor Manufacturing

David Arnold, who directs the Florida Semiconductor Institute at the University of Florida, told a room of Brevard developers Tuesday that Florida ranks fifth in the nation for semiconductor manufacturing employment, that Brevard County anchors it, and that the thing keeping more of these plants from landing here is cash incentives the state has not been willing to put up. He was speaking at Bisnow's Space Coast State of the Market at the Crowne Plaza Melbourne. Arnold grew up in this county.

What Brevard County Semiconductor Manufacturing Still Needs

Arnold listed them: land, water, power, an existing industry cluster, a trained workforce, and capital. Semiconductor companies cluster harder than almost any other manufacturer because the technicians, the material handling and the robotics talent are highly specialized and everybody hires from the same pool. Brevard has five of the six. The missing one is capital.

He put the numbers on it. A small facility runs about $200 million. A full-scale one is around $1 billion. All of that is spent before the plant produces any revenue at all. Other states are closing that gap with public money, and Arnold said states like Ohio and Indiana are writing $100 million cash incentives to site and build. Florida has not done that, and in his words does not have the stomach for it right now. He also flagged community opposition as a live issue, comparable to what data centers are running into, because these plants bring hazardous chemicals and heavy traffic and the objections tend to surface late.

On the workforce side, the Florida Semiconductor Institute's own analysis puts current Florida semiconductor and electronics employment near 18,000, with the state ranking fifth nationally for semiconductor manufacturing employees and third for the number of establishments. Arnold's stated goal on the panel was adding roughly 10,000 jobs over the next ten years. The institute's published projection is a 25 percent increase to about 23,000 jobs by 2030, so his number on stage is an ambition, not the forecast. He traced Florida's position back to Harris Corporation and Harris Semiconductor quietly building the electronics behind the space and defense programs for decades.

A $100 Million Building Sitting Empty in Brevard

Arnold raised a Brevard asset that is on the market in an unusual way. L3Harris built a roughly $100 million purpose-built facility here and the government program it was built for was cancelled. He said he had a call later that same day working to find a new tenant and get the building back to doing what it was designed to do. Highly specialized single-tenant product is exactly what this county keeps producing, and it does not re-tenant through a listing site.

What Space Florida Has Actually Spent

Matt Chesnut, a vice president at Space Florida, gave the balance sheet. Florida declared space a form of transportation about 25 years ago, which is what let the state fund spaceports the way it funds ports and airports. Through the Spaceport Improvement Program, the state has invested roughly $500 million since 2012, with the majority of it going into Brevard County because that is where the launch activity is. He put the private sector match at about $3 billion and the resulting jobs at around 5,000.

Chesnut also defined shovel-ready in a way that works as a yardstick for any Brevard owner marketing land. Entitlements are done, stormwater is understood, water and sewer are understood, and a company can hand in a permit and be digging within 60 to 90 days. Anything short of that, including a site where the environmental work has not started or the trees have not been addressed, is shovel-ready-ish and should be marketed that way. He said he regularly looks at sites a community is actively pitching and finds they are 12 to 18 months from a shovel, with power potentially adding another two years on its own.

Katie Hogan of Florida Power and Light, who moderated, gave the example of what solving that in advance is worth. Space Florida pursued grant funding to build a substation at the Launch and Landing Facility before there was any tenant to serve, because substations now take several years. That is what allowed Amazon Kuiper to sign as the anchor tenant instead of waiting on power.

RCRE Take

The semiconductor headline is not going to arrive as a fab announcement next quarter, and Brevard owners should not underwrite as if it will. What it arrives as is suppliers. Circuit board fabrication, radiation-hardened and high-reliability electronics, test and material handling. Carol Craig of Sidus Space said on the same panel that circuit boards and other pieces of the supply chain still are not here. Those companies take 20,000 to 80,000 square feet with heavy power, not a million square feet, and they are the tenants I would be building for.

The L3Harris building is the more immediate lesson. A single-tenant, program-specific facility in this county carries program risk that shows up all at once, not gradually. If you are a landlord doing a heavy tenant-funded build-out for a defense contractor, the question to ask at the LOI stage is what the space is worth to the second tenant, and who that tenant would be. In deals I have worked here, that question gets waved off during negotiation and answered expensively later.

For anyone marketing land, use Chesnut's 60 to 90 day test on your own site before a site selector does it for you. Sites that fail it are not disqualified, they are just priced and timed differently, and being honest about which one you have is what keeps a prospect at the table.

Submarket Context

Palm Bay carries most of this county's advanced electronics employment, and Systems & Technology Research told the same event it is expanding there next year. Titusville has the certified spaceport and the free trade zone overlay. Both submarkets show up in what is currently available on our commercial investments page, and the industrial and warehouse buildings for sale page covers owner-user product. Engineering and defense tenants that need office rather than plant space are on the Melbourne office leasing page.

If you are siting an advanced manufacturing or electronics operation in Brevard County, or you own a building with the power and height to serve one, reach out before you commit to a site. 321-300-4773, or through the contact page.

Sources

• Bisnow, Space Coast State of the Market: Event agenda, speakers and roles, Crowne Plaza Melbourne, August 25, 2026. Panelist figures come from remarks recorded on site.

• Florida Semiconductor Institute, University of Florida: David Arnold, director.

• FSI semiconductor workforce report: Florida ranks fifth nationally for semiconductor manufacturing employees and third for establishments; about 18,000 jobs today growing to roughly 23,000 by 2030.

• Space Florida: Matt Chesnut, vice president. Spaceport Improvement Program.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where does Florida rank for semiconductor manufacturing?

Fifth in the nation for semiconductor manufacturing employees and third for the number of establishments, according to the Florida Semiconductor Institute's workforce analysis. Current employment is about 18,000, projected to reach roughly 23,000 by 2030.

What does it cost to build a semiconductor facility?

David Arnold of the Florida Semiconductor Institute put a small facility at about $200 million and a full-scale plant at about $1 billion, spent entirely before the plant generates revenue. That speculative outlay is why cash incentives decide these deals, and why he said Florida loses them to states writing $100 million checks.

What makes a site genuinely shovel-ready in Florida?

Matt Chesnut of Space Florida defined it as entitlements complete, stormwater and infrastructure understood, and a permit in hand with digging inside 60 to 90 days. He noted sites being actively marketed are often 12 to 18 months out, and that a power interconnect can add two more years on its own.

How much has the state invested in Brevard's spaceport infrastructure?

Roughly $500 million statewide since 2012 through the Spaceport Improvement Program, with the majority landing in Brevard County. Chesnut put the private sector match at about $3 billion and the associated jobs at about 5,000.

What kind of buildings do semiconductor suppliers actually lease here?

Mid-size high-power industrial rather than large distribution. The gaps named on the panel were circuit board fabrication and other supply chain pieces that Brevard still does not have, and those users typically need heavy three-phase power and clean space more than they need footprint.

Written by Cassandra Hartford, founder and CEO of Reach Commercial Real Estate. She has worked in Brevard County commercial real estate for 18 years, representing buyers, sellers, landlords, and tenants across Florida's Space Coast.