City of Orlando Director of Innovation Matt Broffman is flying off to a new role with air taxi maker Lilium.
Broffman will lead public engagement efforts in Florida for the German company, which will build a 56,000-square-foot takeoff and landing facility for its electric passenger jets in Orlando. The local facility, known as a vertiport, will be Lilium’s first in the U.S., but the company will target more facilities across the Sunshine State with Broffman’s help.
Lilium’s southeast Orlando hub got the green light in November, but the company and the city of Orlando began conversations years before. Broffman will be able to use his experience from that process to help other cities develop the infrastructure needed to enable Lilium’s air taxi service, he told Orlando Business Journal. “There’s a lot of learning we have and work we’ve done to share with other cities across the globe.”
Tavistock Development Co. will develop the Orlando vertiport, with operations to begin in 2025. However, Orlando is just the start, as Lilium targets 14 vertiports in Florida, including Melbourne and Daytona Beach. Florida will serve as the jet maker’s first regional hub, but the company eyes a national presence.
“Together with the team, Matt Broffman will help deliver our first regional hub in Florida and support Lilium’s mission to bring sustainable and accessible regional air mobility to communities across the country,” Lilium told OBJ.
Lilium’s seven-seat passenger jets cruise at 175 miles per hour, putting Tampa, St. Petersburg and West Palm Beach within a one-hour trip from Orlando. Not only do they provide a new way to travel, but they also create high-wage jobs. For example, the Orlando vertiport will create 143 jobs that pay an average annual salary of $66,451, higher than metro Orlando’s average annual salary of $48,530.
Of course, Broffman plans to be one of the early adopters of this new form of air travel. “Hopefully I get to ride one of the first few ones that we’ll have in Florida.”
Helping bring Lilium to Orlando was only one of Broffman’s recent accomplishments as the city’s director of innovation. Broffman and his team transitioned more than 350 municipal services to orlando.gov, helping Orlando earn recognition as one of the only cities nationally prepared to go digital during the pandemic. Broffman and his team also designed and launched a feedback opportunity similar to a customer service experience to obtain data-driven insights regarding residents’ interactions with Orlando Police Department officers.
In more than six years as director of innovation, Broffman “played a key role in facilitating the delivery of innovative projects from ideation through implementation, and utilizing technology to enhance the experience for city staff while building overall efficiencies,” according to a city of Orlando statement sent to OBJ.
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