Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is heading to a land of sunshine.
The Sunshine State in particular, as the tech billionaire announced he is leaving Seattle, Washington, and moving to Miami, Florida.
After three decades on the nation’s West Coast, Bezos is departing the birthplace of his e-commerce company for the warmer shores of South Florida. He made the announcement on Thursday in a message on Instagram that included a video of himself giving a tour of the company’s first office in Seattle.
“Seattle has been my home since 1994 when I started Amazon out of my garage. That’s my dad behind the camera in this video, touring Amazon’s first ‘office,” the 59-year-old businessman wrote.
View this post on Instagram
Bezos, who stepped down as CEO of Amazon in 2021, explained that he wanted to be close to his parents and make the move back to Miami where he grew up. As an added bonus, unlike Washington State, there is no capital gains tax in Florida.
“My parents have always been my biggest supporters. They recently moved back to Miami, the place we lived when I was younger (Miami Palmetto High class of ’82 — GO Panthers!)” the post reads.
“I want to be close to my parents, and Lauren and I love Miami,” Bezos added, referring to his fiancee Lauren Sanchez.
He also made a reference to his space exploration company, Blue Origin, and how it would make more sense to be closer to Cape Canaveral on the Space Coast of Florida, which is about 200 miles north of Miami.
“Also, Blue Origin’s operations are increasingly shifting to Cape Canaveral. For all that, I’m planning to return to Miami, leaving the Pacific Northwest,” Bezos explained.
The billionaire who started his company in truly a modest office and is now boasting a net worth of around $156 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Update: Bloomberg’s list of the official Richest Men in the World:
Elon Musk: $200 billion
Bernard Arnault: $153b
Jeff Bezos: $151b
Bill Gates: $121b
Steve Ballmer: $115b
Larry Ellison: $114b
Warren Buffet: $111b
Larry Page: $110b
Mark Zuckerberg:…— US Civil Defense News (@CaptCoronado) October 30, 2023
“Bezos’ announcement comes just two weeks after he purchased a $79 million mansion in Florida’s exclusive ‘Billionaire Bunker’ island. The site is next door to a $68 million estate he scooped up two months earlier,” Fox Business noted, referring to the area on the barrier island of Indian Creek.
The 19,000-square-foot mansion reportedly has seven bedrooms and over a dozen bathrooms and sits on 1.8 acres of land.
Billionaire Jeff Bezos has acquired a $68 million waterfront mansion on the man-made island of Indian Creek in Miami. pic.twitter.com/WI3TfRKRn3
— James Smith Home Team (@JSHTRealEstate) August 19, 2023
“I’ve lived in Seattle longer than I’ve lived anywhere else and have so many amazing memories here,” Bezos wrote on Instagram.
“As exciting as the move is, it’s an emotional decision for me,” he concluded. “Seattle, you will always have a piece of my heart.”
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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