urbanSTL

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.

also here:

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 0f31a.html

^^^ bring back the Vegas flights!!!!!

jambo wrote:^^^ bring back the Vegas flights!!!!!

Ask, and ye shall receive, apparently:

http://www.stltoday.com/news/traffic/al ... 5Q.twitter

Most grateful!

Seasonal flights from MidAmerica to Destin, Florida starting in June.

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... e8706.html

St. Billiken wrote:Seasonal flights from MidAmerica to Destin, Florida starting in June.

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... e8706.html

my lady friend got a flight (round trip) to Destin in August for $109.

Since I mentioned MidAmerica in the last post.

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news ... erica.html

Allegiant going all in at Mid-America.

^Great! Would love to see them add some or all of Myrtle Beach, Savannah, New Orleans, Austin, and/or Phoenix. All of which are pretty thoroughly covered by our peer cities.

^ and this is why i'm terrified to fly.

arch city wrote:Sounds like some ValuJet sh*t.

Keep in mind, VauJet turned themselves around, rebranded their airline as AirTran, and then succeeded at least well enough to convince Southwest to buy them. Of course, I rather hope Allegiant can get things under better control with a little less prompting. But I have enough faith in the system to think the odds of this are fairly high. I don't think any airline mechanic really wants a body count. Nor any pilot, especially what with the odds of being in the count going up as you move forward in the plane . . . and the pilots sit pretty far forward.