Studer Community Institute

Putting their money where their mouth is

March 18, 2015
/ Connie Baggett, Gulf Coast Reporters’ League
/ economy

Rural South Alabama’s efforts to lure aerospace operations pre-dates Airbus’ decision to set up an assembly line in Mobile, but those plans and a willingness to spend money kicked it into high gear. The mayor of this city in South Alabama’s Covington County thinks he knows what it takes to get companies in the lucrative aerospace field to take notice. “You have to be willing to spend money, significant money, on facilities,” says Mayor Earl Johnson, who notes that attracting aerospace companies is a highly competitive endeavor. “Spec buildings have to be more than just a pole barn. The Department of Defense has complex specifications for contractors, and we were willing to invest along with Opp and Covington County to basically put our money where our mouth is. It’s one thing to say you want jobs. It’s another to make a significant investment to make that happen.” Apparently, the approach works. Andalusia is in a rural region north of the more densely populated metropolitan areas along the coast and south of metropolitan Montgomery. To its east is the Dothan metropolitan area. That gives those rural counties some impressive neighbors, like the Airbus assembly line in Mobile, Ala., and military activities at Maxwell Air Force Base, Fort Rucker, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Naval Air Station Whiting Field and Eglin Air Force Base. Five of the counties, Choctaw, Clarke, Monroe, Conecuh and Escambia, are members of the Coastal Gateway Regional Economic Development Alliance, which sees aerospace as a priority. It points out that the state is home to hundreds of aerospace and aviation-related industries, and that the group’s goal is to have a workforce ready for those types of jobs. Gateway says South Alabama is home to 63 aviation, aircraft, and aerospace companies, and the Alabama Aviation Center, Alabama's largest aviation maintenance technology campus, is in Enterprise in Coffee and Dale counties, and operates a facility off campus in Mobile. Seven years ago, economic development efforts in Covington County shifted heavily to recruiting aerospace companies linked to the newly renamed Southwest Alabama Regional Airport. The county pooled resources with Opp and Andalusia to seek high-tech jobs in aviation and automotive industries. Around the same time in 2007 a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation allowed the airport to add 1,000 feet to its main runway for a 6,000-foot track. Industrial sites surround the airport allow room for growth and new recruits. Within a year, Vector Aerospace moved in with its helicopter maintenance operation. The Toronto-based company, which traces its roots to 1947, has since been acquired by Eurocopter Holding (now called Airbus Helicopters), a subsidiary of international aviation giant EADS (now called Airbus Group) in a $638 million transaction in 2011. Vector has grown to more than 200 workers with a $3 million expansion last year adding some 75 jobs. Mechanics and technicians work on TH-67 helicopters for the Army in Fort Rucker to the east as well as TH-57s from Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Florida’s Milton to the south. “Vector is an excellent corporate partner,” Earl Johnson said. “Not only do they provide more than 150 jobs here, but they were a significant donor to our Miracle Field project and continue to be active in our community.” There are other success stories. “One of our best stories is Muskogee Technology,” said Jess Nicholas, communications director for Coastal Gateway Regional Economic Development Alliance. The company is a subsidiary of the Creek Indian Enterprises Development Authority of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. Muskogee Technology in Escambia County is a growing company specializing in metal fabrication, composites, precision machining, water jet cutting, electronics, engineering, and electronic and electromechanical assembly and kitting services. Nicholas says the Atmore company won an award in June 2014 during the Farnborough International Airshow in the United Kingdom. It took home the Lean and Innovation award from tier one supplier GKN Aerospace, recognized for its innovative approach to handling the carbon composite supply chain for GKN’s Tallassee, Ala., production facility. The award is given to only one of hundreds of companies worldwide comprising the supply chain for GKN’s aerospace products. Interest in the area is picking up. “Our region has seen a lot of activity since the Airbus announcement,” said John Johnson, executive director of CGEDA. Airbus said in 2012 it would build a $600 million A320 final assembly line in Mobile. The plant will open in the fall of this year. “Aggressive efforts in Andalusia have been ongoing for decades with great success. They operate more on the maintenance and repair business coming out of Fort Rucker and other military installations. “What we are seeing in the rest of the region now is a push to increase aviation training like the initiative in Fairhope, for example.” Baldwin County Public School System constructed a $2.7 million training facility at H.L. “Sonny” Callahan Airport that will give students aviation industry training, like industrial maintenance and welding. Students can earn dual enrollment college or technical school credits through the program. Other counties may be following that approach to lure aviation jobs, according to John Johnson. “We don’t see a lot of people building new hangars now, as in a spec building approach. It’s more workforce training like maintenance and mechanics,” Johnson said. “That is a completely different approach from what Andalusia and Covington County have been doing.” Gateway Executive Director Johnson said he has seen some interest in the region with companies from other parts of the country visiting to scout prospective sites. He said they are looking for two things: a location closer to the Airbus operation to reduce transportation costs and reduction in labor and tax costs. Evergreen Mayor Pete Wolff said his city is poised to take advantage of any aerospace development, whether it is military-based maintenance opportunities or Airbus suppliers. “We have two 5,000-foot runways,” Wolff said, “and we are in the process of adding another 2,000 feet to our north/south runway. We will be able to accommodate any aircraft once that is done. We have a 24-hour refueling station and added pilot comfort stations. We want a new terminal and have applied for grants for that and new hangars and we are working on taxiways. “The way we look at it,” Wolff said, “the airport is the first thing those prospective industrial representatives see. We had a corporate jet land here. I met with the pilots. They couldn't believe a town our size had a 24-hour refueling station. Aerospace is a great investment. It can be a game-changer.” Brewton has also looked to its airport and surrounding land so prospects can give the area a look. The city offers acreage from a 20-acre tract to an option on much more adjacent to the airport. Mayor Yank Lovelace said sites with rail access and other amenities attractive for aerospace suppliers are abundant in the city and surrounding county with a community that boasts a highly-rated quality of life. In Monroe County, officials have long touted the county’s airport with runways expanded over the years to handle corporate jets for companies like Vanity Fair and Alabama River Companies, now known as Alabama River Cellulose, owned by Georgia Pacific. Efforts to improve the airport as well as attract Airbus suppliers are a priority as the county continues its efforts at diversifying what has been a wood-centered industrial base. “Across our region,” Johnson said, “there have been companies showing an interest” and that bodes well for rural counties near the coast, he said. Gulf_Coast_Aerospace_Corridor.com is a website created in 2008 to highlight aerospace activities along the Interstate 10 corridor between New Orleans and Northwest Florida. It includes reference material, job postings, a daily aerospace newsfeed and weekly column. In 2011, the website teamed with several journalists to create the Gulf Coast Reporters’ League, which writes and publishes an annual book about aerospace in the region. The first book was published in June 2011. In September 2013, the League launched an eight-page quarterly aerospace newsletter, which became a bimonthly in August 2014 after the League published the fourth edition of the annual. All the books can be found at: www.gulfcoastaerospacecorridor.com/gcacbooksall.html; and all the newsletters can be found at www.gulfcoastaerospacecorridor.com/gcacnewslettersall.html.

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