GE delays opening, but adds initial jobs
May 11--General Electric Co. is delaying the 2013 occupancy of its $51 million Dayton development center for aircraft electric power systems so that GE can expand the laboratory's research capacity, officials said.
That means the company won't move personnel into the building until May or June 2013, rather than February 2013 as previously scheduled, said spokesman Rick Kennedy of GE Aviation, a General Electric unit that manufactures aircraft engines and systems.
The company may move in 50 to 60 personnel at occupancy, more than twice as many as it had originally planned to move in, Kennedy said. That will include some employees and leadership from GE's electric power systems business in Vandalia, he said.
By 2020, GE hopes to eventually have about 200 people in the new site, Kennedy said.
GE Aviation and its construction partners for the building are redesigning the facility's laboratory to install additional electricity generating and handling capacity, Kennedy said. Those power-generating stations in the lab are to be used to simulate the energy needs of aircraft, for GE's research and development of next-generation power systems for military and civilian airplanes.
The aviation industry is demanding systems with greater capacity for generating and distributing electricity aboard military and civilian aircraft. Redesigning the laboratory now, rather than waiting until after the building is operational, can support GE's needs for what it perceives as a growth market, Kennedy said.
The presence of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which manages manned and unmanned aircraft programs, is a magnet for GE Aviation.
GE's technology for the next-generation electric power systems could eventually also be used for naval vessels, cars and trucks.
GE is working with the University of Dayton, which owns the land on which the center is being built, and CityWide Development Corp., the city of Dayton's development arm, to construct the facility. The facility, which is known as the Electrical Power Integrated Systems Research and Development Center (EpisCenter), is at South Patterson Boulevard and River Park Drive.
Ohio helped attract GE by offering a $7.6 million, Third Frontier technology grant in 2009. In 2010, the company agreed to locate the center in Dayton. Local officials hope GE's arrival will attract other companies and new jobs to the state-designated aerospace technology innovation hub in Dayton.
University of Dayton officials expect that the center will offer UD students a chance to work with GE researchers.
The university and CityWide Development are aware of GE's changed schedule for occupying the center and are supportive of it, their spokespeople said.
University spokeswoman Teri Rizvi described it as a "minor delay."
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