To our readers
Red Tape Florida conducted a direct, extended interview with the CEO of a fast-growing technology company who requested anonymity to protect current business relationships and ongoing operations. We spoke with the CEO firsthand and at length about his company’s efforts to locate a major new facility in Tallahassee-Leon County and why those efforts ultimately failed.
We agreed to anonymity only after confirming the individual’s role, the company’s legitimacy, and the factual timeline described below, including the company’s eventual decision to locate a significant operation in another Florida market. This account reflects the CEO’s own words and experiences and is published because it offers a rare, inside view of how Tallahassee loses projects it publicly claims to want.
A Red Tape Florida exclusive, by Skip Foster
For nearly a year, the CEO of a fast-growing technology company tried to bring a major new facility to Tallahassee-Leon County.
He believed the city had the right ingredients: a major research university, access to technical talent, and a long-stated ambition to attract innovation-driven employers. He wasn’t shopping the project broadly or playing jurisdictions against one another. He wanted Tallahassee to work.
It didn’t.
“Literally nothing happened,” the CEO told Red Tape Florida. “I spent close to a year trying to move it forward. Eventually, I just gave up.”
The CEO leads a company operating at the cutting edge of advanced technology, developing equipment that requires highly specialized research, manufacturing capacity, and a skilled technical workforce. In 2023, the company began searching for a location for a significant new facility that would combine research, engineering, and manufacturing under one roof.
Tallahassee seemed, at least initially, like a logical fit.
But what unfolded was not a deal that fell apart at the margins or collapsed over money. It was, instead, a slow grind of polite engagement, shifting responsibility, and an absence of clear leadership. It fits the pattern of a lack of economic development performance Red Tape Florida wrote about earlier this year.
“Everyone was friendly. Everyone was welcoming,” the CEO said. “There were follow-up emails, welcome materials, lots of conversations.”
What never materialized was progress.
“The problem wasn’t attitude,” he said. “It was leadership.”
According to the CEO, the project was repeatedly passed between agencies, organizations, and stakeholders — including the Office of Economic Vitality — with no single entity empowered to lead or make decisions.
“There was no quarterback,” he said. “We were handed off from one group to another. Everyone was involved, but no one was actually in charge.”
As months passed, forward movement stalled while approvals were sought, internal checks were required, and additional voices entered the process.
“It felt like an endless maze,” he said. “Every time we thought we were getting somewhere, there was another step, another delay, another person who needed to weigh in.”
The CEO stressed that he encountered capable and well-intentioned individuals along the way. But without a clear chain of command, those individual efforts were never translated into action.
“Good people don’t matter if the system doesn’t allow anyone to lead,” he said.
After roughly a year of unproductive engagement, the CEO began conversations with officials in another Florida market.
The contrast was immediate.
“In the first meeting, things started moving,” he said. “They understood what we were trying to do, they were clear about what was possible, and they acted.”
Within months, a framework was in place. Soon after, a formal agreement followed. Plans moved forward for a facility that would include manufacturing space, research labs, offices, and room for expansion.
The CEO described the project as exactly the type of development Tallahassee routinely says it wants: advanced manufacturing, high-paying technical jobs, and long-term growth potential.
What continues to frustrate him is that Tallahassee was never competing in a crowded field.
“This wasn’t a bidding war,” he said. “We weren’t shopping the project all over the country. Tallahassee had the inside track.”
Only when it became clear that nothing was going to happen did he seriously look elsewhere.
“We needed to move,” he said. “Time matters when you’re building a company.”
He emphasized that his company was not asking for extraordinary incentives or special treatment.
“We weren’t asking for anything unusual,” he said. “We were asking for less than other successful projects in Florida have received.”
Instead, the process felt designed to delay rather than enable.
“It was like a video game,” he said. “You clear one level and immediately face another obstacle.”
Eventually, delay became decisive.
“I didn’t want to walk away,” he said. “But at some point, you have to make a decision.”
Asked what Tallahassee-Leon County could do differently to win similar projects in the future, his answer was straightforward.
“They need clear leadership,” he said. “One entity that owns the relationship with business, quarterbacks the process, and makes decisions.”
He paused before adding:
“It’s great to feel welcomed. But welcoming isn’t the same thing as leading.”