urbanSTL

Moorlander wrote:Announcement today at 11. Sounds like it will be a Fortune 500 company, possibly Boeing.

http://www.bnd.com/2010/08/19/1369153/w ... erica.html

It's Boeing, yes. Employees received an email @ 11:02, two minutes after the briefing started.

Alex Ihnen wrote:You got the email to share? Is that allowed?

Your questions will be answered via the press briefing, no doubt.

Finally, there will be more jobs at MidAmerica Airport. Now they can finish the St. Clair County Extension to the airport!!!

i hate this. cut with the "thank yous" and the yappy yap already, what's going to be manufactured here?

$2.3M/75 jobs = $85K/job subsidy. This over and above the $200M cost to build the airport and the roughly $5M a year in losses that it's racked up for more than a decade.

At least Boeing isn't likely to cut and run in the same way that the numerous "fly by night" (so to speak) airlines and other businesses have fleeced MidAmerica. Nonetheless, I'm not really seeing the economics here.

Can't argue that it is a good thing the Boeing is adding jobs to the Metro area. The frustrating part in my opinion is that it reeks as a political play for Illinois Congressional delegation support of a new tanker deal. Had to say it,

As far as manufacturing in Illinois, the bigger story is Olin for Metro East and the fact that Perio Based Caterpillar is building a new 600,000 sq ft in Texas and expanding in NC

Dredger wrote:Can't argue that it is a good thing the Boeing is adding jobs to the Metro area. The frustrating part in my opinion is that it reeks as a political play for Illinois Congressional delegation support of a new tanker deal. Had to say it,

As far as manufacturing in Illinois, the bigger story is Olin for Metro East and the fact that Perio Based Caterpillar is building a new 600,000 sq ft in Texas and expanding in NC

Dick Durban Field at Mid America Airport?

Yup. So much for trusting a Microsoft calculator.

$31K is a much nicer subsidy. But it's still a subsidy. On top of all the other incredibly failed subsidies thrown at that ever-expanding white elephant.

The already made investments of building the airport are not related to this specific deal.

Naw, of course not. Everything exists in a vacuum. And the $2.3M thrown at this particular project will have no bearing on throwing endless additional subsidies at a facility which, arguably, should simply be mothballed.

The Count wrote:The already made investments of building the airport are not related to this specific deal.

How's that?
Mid-America built a building on spec for cargo operations that never came. Now it's leasing that building to Boeing, one would guess at a very low rate. If Mid-America hadn't built the thing, Boeing would have to, which would make this deal more expensive, and, thus, less likely to happen.
To say nothing of taxiways, parking lots, roads, etc. etc.

According to the reports, this is just phase 1 of 3.

The reports also mention how these types of manufacturing facilities typically spur additional companies to locate nearby.

This combined with last weeks report of SAB adding 1100 positions is really great for the metro east and the region. Now we just need secure the olin manufacturing plant.

Can't help but think that having Boeing kick start the Martin Aviation Airpark development proposal or at least a more modest plan @ Downtown St. Louis airport would be a better long term proposition for Metro East and the region

At the same time, as Moorlander noted, the Air Force continues to expand and maximize SAB's use. So why not turn Mid-America over to the Air Force? The federal government essentially paid for the runway in the first place and they have been driving major growth in the region via DOD expenditures for the last several years. By giving them a second runway you would cement SAB's command future and provide an ideal ground for further expansions.

Lambert, Downtown St. Louis airport, and Chesterfield executive airport under a port authority for commerical traffic would be my next push as a region.

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 2bc8b.html

This is great news for Mid-America, but it baffles me that expanding the Hazelwood facility was not an option. I know that there are several vacant buildings and sights near the airport, especially since the economic downturn. I know they are touting the ability to utilize an underutilized facility, but it just seems odd that there was never a mention of expansion in Hazelwood. I'd bet metro east employees will be jumping at the chance to move to that facility. It is good for the region and I am glad the jobs stayed close, don't get me wrong. At least they didn't put the facility in Madison County..

I agree. It's a big win for St. Clair County, and by extension, it's still a win for Greater St. Louis.

I'd like to know more about the site selection process, i.e., was Missouri ever in the running, and if the answer is yes, what did area leaders do to entice Boeing to consider a site in Hazelwood near Lambert Field?

The Count wrote:Addition to previous post:

stlwriterman wrote: Mid-America built a building on spec for cargo operations that never came.

The building was built in 2005 at a cost of $8 Million. St. Clair County paid 10%, the rest was funded by the federal government.

Can't say I much care if the funding was local or federal. Either way, it came from taxpayers and went to build unneeded infrastructure. And the fact that St. Clair County then spent another $3 million to lure a once-a-week cargo route that failed in 18 months doesn't really help make the business case for Mid-America.

I've got no problem with leasing this hangar to Boeing. It makes good sense for both parties and it's far preferable than having it sit empty. But let's not pretend this is some big win for the region. Boeing could just as easily have added 75 jobs in Hazelwood and no one would have batted an eye.

A big win would have been getting one of the news Caterpillar factories instead of Texa and NC and the several several hundred jobs that will come along with it for the region. Heck, they didn't even had to build a facility. Their is a big empty building in Fenton that would dwarf Mid America's facility. Their is literally a Fortune Five Hundred and Global Manufacturing Leader in Construction Equipment just up the road and I don't think they even gave St. Louis region a thought.

http://enr.construction.com/products/eq ... uction.asp

Even so, North America saw a 43% second quarter sales gain, and it remains Caterpillar's biggest market by sales. The brightened outlook has prompted ambitious U.S. expansion plans, including a new $120-million, 600,000-sq-ft hydraulic excavator manufacturing plant, in Victoria, Texas, about 120 miles southwest of Houston.

Expected to add 1,000 jobs upon completion in mid-2012, the plant will produce hydraulic excavators now produced in Akashi, Japan, and Aurora, Ill., where excavator production will be phased out. The Texas plant is part of a long-term U.S. manufacturing shift from the Midwest to the South, where production costs are cheaper thanks to reduced labor costs—fewer unions, that is—and inexpensive shipping.

“For Caterpillar to maintain industry leadership, it is critical that we continue to invest in our operations,” says Rich Lavin, Caterpillar group president, in a statement. Caterpillar additionally gets $3 million in cash, 320 acres of land, and tax breaks from state and local authorities for the move.

Caterpillar in August also announced plans for an 850,000-sq-ft mining axle assembly plant in Winston-Salem, N.C., a 270,000-sq-ft compact construction equipment facility expansion in Sanford, N.C., and a 3,100-sq-ft engineering design center on the campus of South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in Rapid City. The projects will finish between late 2010 and early 2012, adding about 825 jobs combined.

The Count wrote:^^ The press conference was indeed a show. The Illinois politicians received a nice present from Boeing. Now Boeing wants a present in return: A tanker contract. (Which is not necessarily a bad thing for St. Louis.)

Absolutely. As much as anything, that's what this was about. Wouldn't be surprised if Boeing turns around in a few months and asks for some state help related to its HQ up in Chicago, too (just speculation on my part).

As for "what constitutes a big win." Meaningful international air cargo service, sustainable without public subsidy, at either Lambert or Mid-America, would be a nice start. A maintenance facility for one of the big commercial airlines, that'd be a big win. An actual Boeing assembly plant making a new line of military planes (as opposed to unspecified spare parts)? Say, the next generation bomber? That'd be huge.