Business incentives — Palm Bay, Florida

The City of Palm Bay offers two local incentives, an ad valorem tax abatement for new and expanding target-industry businesses and a 75 percent building permit fee reduction, and points businesses to HUBZone and Foreign Trade Zone #136 benefits.

The city's Programs and Incentives page says Palm Bay is pursuing commercial and industrial development to diversify its industry base, add jobs and stabilize its tax base. It names the corridors it wants redeveloped: Palm Bay Road, Malabar Road, Babcock Road, U.S. 1/Dixie Highway, Port Malabar Boulevard, Robert J. Conlan Boulevard and Lipscomb Road. Palm Bay is also a member of the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast, which runs its own separate programs.

Questions about any of these go to the Palm Bay Community and Economic Development office at City Hall, 120 Malabar Road, (321) 409-7187, according to the city's Site Selection page. Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the City of Palm Bay economic development website.

Palm Bay's abatement lets the City Council exempt a qualifying new or expanding business from city property tax on its new improvements and equipment, for a period set in an ordinance of up to 10 years.

The city guidelines limit the program to key Florida industries: cleantech, life sciences, information technology, aviation and aerospace, homeland security and defense, financial and professional services, manufacturing, emerging technologies and corporate headquarters, excluding retail. A manufacturing plant in Palm Bay must establish 10 or more jobs; a business whose sales factor is under 0.50 must establish 25 or more; a newly domiciled corporate office must house 50 or more full-time employees.

State law sets the ceiling. Under section 196.1995, Florida Statutes, a city that has won voter approval may exempt up to 100 percent of the assessed value of improvements and tangible personal property of a new business, or of the added improvements of an expansion, and the exemption may run up to 10 years (20 years for a data center). The exemption does not cover taxes levied for bonds or voter-approved levies, and it applies only to the Palm Bay city share of the tax bill, not to Brevard County or school taxes.

The Palm Bay City Council must take into account the number of net new jobs, the average wage of those jobs, the capital investment, whether the business is a target industry, its environmental impact and how much of its supplies it intends to source locally (s. 196.1995). The ordinance must state that loss and the expiration date, and any exemption agreement must require the business to report the actual number of new full-time jobs and their average wage before the exemption ends; the agreement may let the council revoke the exemption if the business falls short.

On July 20, 2023, the Palm Bay City Council approved two ad valorem tax abatements for L3Harris Technologies, Ordinance 2023-53 for Project LEO and Ordinance 2023-54 for Project SAMT, each by a 3-0 vote.

The minutes of Regular Council Meeting 2023-17 record that the meeting was held in the City Hall Council Chambers at 120 Malabar Road, with Mayor Rob Medina, Deputy Mayor Donny Felix and Councilman Kenny Johnson present, Councilmember Randy Foster absent and one seat vacant. Both ordinances were on final reading. A resident spoke against Ordinance 2023-53, calling the tax breaks preferential treatment, before Mayor Medina passed the chair to the deputy mayor and moved approval.

The second ordinance, 2023-54 followed the same steps: a public hearing, a presentation by the applicant and a 3-0 vote with Councilman Johnson seconding. The two votes show that Palm Bay was still granting abatements in 2023. The City Attorney read each ordinance in caption only, so the minutes give no job counts, wages or exemption values.

Florida lets a city grant economic development tax exemptions only after its voters approve the authority in a referendum, and that authority lapses 10 years after the election unless Palm Bay voters renew it.

Under section 196.1995, a city council calls the referendum itself or after a petition signed by 10 percent of registered voters, and a referendum may be held only once in any 12-month period. Each renewal covers a further 10 years. An exemption already granted stays in force for its full term even if Palm Bay's authority later lapses.

Brevard County holds a separate authority for the county share of the tax bill. The Supervisor of Elections list of 2024 general election amendments and referenda carried Brevard County Resolution 2024-068, asking whether the county commission should continue to be authorized to grant exemptions to new and expanding businesses expected to create new, full-time jobs. Cocoa (Ordinance 10-2024) and Titusville (Ordinance No. 14-2024) put similar exemption questions to their own voters on the same ballot; Palm Bay's only city measure on that ballot was Ordinance 2024-31, a charter amendment on hiring assistant city attorneys.

A Palm Bay business seeking the largest break therefore applies to two bodies: the Palm Bay City Council for the city share and the Brevard County Commission for the county share, each with its own referendum authority and ordinance.

Palm Bay cuts the city-retained building permit fee by 75 percent for for-profit businesses that build, expand or fit out space in the Highway Commercial, Light Industrial and Warehousing, or Heavy Industrial zoning districts.

The program description says the reduction started under Resolution 2023-01 and set at 75 percent by Resolution 2025-11. It covers new buildings, expanded building footprints and interior improvements made to accommodate business growth. A tenant can apply with an owner's affidavit and a copy of the lease. The Palm Bay Community and Economic Development Director and the Chief Building Official decide eligibility.

The job condition is written into the city application form: if the business does not create at least 10 full-time jobs, the reduction is void and the full fee becomes due to the Palm Bay Building Department. The form asks for the anticipated new hires in the first year and, for existing buildings, the current full-time headcount at the Palm Bay location.

A separate Palm Bay reduction serves housing builders. Under Resolution 2024-30, an affordable housing project in which all units meet the state definition and serve households under 80 percent of area median income gets the building permit fee portion cut by 100 percent; state surcharges, plan review and other fees still apply, and fees already paid are not refunded (city certification form, revised February 2025).

Palm Bay has census tracts designated as a HUBZone by the U.S. Small Business Administration, and Brevard County sites fall under Foreign Trade Zone #136, for which Port Canaveral is the grantee.

The city page describes HUBZone status as giving qualified small businesses in designated areas access to federal contracts and subcontracts, and invites businesses to ask the city whether a site lies inside the Palm Bay HUBZone. Foreign Trade Zone #136 covers more than 4,000 acres with sites around Brevard County; goods inside a zone are treated as outside U.S. customs territory until they enter domestic commerce, which can defer, reduce or eliminate duties.

Parts of the Palm Bay incentive page predate recent changes in state law. It still says state incentives are managed by Enterprise Florida, but House Bill 5 (2023), approved by the Governor on June 1, 2023 as Chapter 2023-173, transferred the duties of Enterprise Florida to the Department of Commerce. The page's definitions cite sections 196.012(15) and (16), which are now numbered (14) and (15) in the current statute; the statute also requires the new jobs to pay an average wage above the area average, a condition the Palm Bay page does not repeat.