Duke City could get 1,500 aviation jobs

Albuquerque is a step closer to landing 1,500 coveted aviation jobs after Piper Aircraft Co. narrowed its list of potential homes to three.

Economic development officials are feeling optimistic.

"I think we've got better than a 50 percent shot," said Fred Mondragon, the state's secretary for economic development.

The Vero Beach, Fla., airplane manufacturer on Friday whittled its list of five finalist cities in contention for a new corporate headquarters down to three. Still standing are Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, and Vero Beach, where the company has been based since 1957.

"The competition clearly is quite strong," said Gary Tonjes, president of nonprofit business recruiter Albuquerque Economic Development. "Not only is Vero Beach their current home and an excellent location for them for many years, Oklahoma City is always a tough competitor."

Piper is searching for a new location to house both its corporate headquarters and a manufacturing site for the PiperJet, a $2.2 million single-engine jet the company hopes to deliver by 2010. The company has cited things such as rapidly increased insurance costs as reasons for looking outside its home state.

At stake are Piper's 1,050 existing jobs and about 500 new jobs needed to manufacture the PiperJet.

Eliminated from contention Friday were Tallahassee, Fla., and Columbia, S.C., according to a statement from Piper spokesman Mark Miller.

"Despite their strengths, Columbia and Tallahassee did not compare as favorably as competing cities when we considered some of our key location criteria such as a more established aviation sector and a ready work force of employees with the skills required to meet our needs," Miller said in the statement.

"In addition, the remaining locations still on our list were able to propose significant offers of business incentives," Miller said.

It's proving to be an expensive pitch for the cities involved in luring Piper.

Before they were eliminated from contention, city officials in Tallahassee signed off on a $90 million package of incentives.

The Vero Beach City Council and the Indian River County Commission on Thursday approved a $76.5 million incentive package to keep Piper.

Miller, the Piper spokesman, said the company will not disclose its decision timeline.

Officials in Florida have said New Mexico is offering a $70 million package, but officials here declined to discuss the state's incentive package.

Similarly, officials in Oklahoma - a state with an aerospace work force of 143,000 - also declined to discuss incentives.

"Oklahoma looks forward to the opportunity to show Piper officials that we are the ideal choice for their project," Natalie Shirley, Oklahoma's Secretary of Commerce and Tourism, said Friday in a series of prepared statements issued by Oklahoma officials.

Both Mondragon and Tonjes said Piper could bolster Albuquerque as a center for manufacturing the growing aviation sector of very light jets.

Eclipse Aviation, already headquartered in Albuquerque, is considered the pioneer of very light jets, which hold about six passengers and cost about half the price of traditional business jets.

"It is certainly far more than just another employer," Tonjes said of Piper. "It builds on our strengths and certainly, with what Eclipse has already brought here, with Piper it would cement our position as the center of the very light jet industry."

It was Eclipse's success in Albuquerque that impressed Piper, Mondragon said.

"They were impressed with the fact that we already have a very light jet manufacturing capability. This capability is seen as a positive. There are not very many very light jet manufacturers across the country," Mondragon said. "We look forward to being the victor in this."

Nadia Gergis of Scripps

Treasure Coast Newspapers in

Florida contributed to this report.

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