Employment at Adam Aircraft facilities in Ogden will take off in the coming months as the company adds 600 full-time jobs over the next two years on the way to about 1,255 jobs over 15 years.
Adam Aircraft Industries Inc., based in Colorado, said Friday that it has selected Ogden for an expansion. The announcement came shortly after a state board reworked an economic development incentive to get the jobs to come to Utah.
"Ogden is our choice," company spokeswoman Shelly Simi said Friday afternoon, although she cautioned that Adam Aircraft still needs to work through some infrastructure issues and to sign agreements.
"We are thrilled with their (the board's) decision, and we will work toward bringing this to fruition and being able to expand our facilities to bring a manufacturing facility to Utah," she said.
The company, founded in 1998, has about 50 employees at a 55,000-square-foot facility at the south end of Ogden-Hinckley Airport. They design, develop and produce the six-seat A500, a twin-propeller aircraft that received Federal Aviation Administration certification in 2005.
The site would be used for producing the seven-seat A700, a similar plane powered by a pair of jets, once the company gets FAA certification for that aircraft. That is expected to occur next year. Both aircraft use lightweight carbon-fiber composite materials.
"We already have the facility there, but it would be the full expansion," Simi said. "What we want to do is have it as our world production facility and world-class delivery center."
The company wants to ramp up to full capacity at the facility in 2009 and use it for the final assembly of the A500 and future assembly of the A700, plus the customer delivery center, Simi said.
Documents used by the Governor's Office of Economic Development Board on Friday indicated that Ogden was competing with Colorado, Arkansas and Texas for the expansion.
"It's certainly a great employee base that's there," Simi said of Ogden. "You've got a lot of the technology background. You have people with the background in composites. And then there's the location itself. It's not that far from Denver."
Adam Aircraft's headquarters are south of Denver at the Centennial Airport in Englewood.
Another advantage for Ogden was Michigan-based Williams International, which will produce the jet engines for the A700. That company has a facility at the north end of the Ogden airport.
The A700 production currently is in Englewood. Adam Aircraft will maintain its headquarters there and continue to have research and development, flight tests, engineering and initial production of the A700 at that site — continuing its growth as the company expands its family of aircraft, Simi said.
The company has about 850 employees, including 50 in Ogden and about 35 in Pueblo, Colo., where tail boom assembly for both aircraft takes place.
When fully operating, the Ogden site could be producing three A500s and 10 to 15 A700s per month. "That's our target," Simi said.
"We feel very strongly about Utah, and we will prepare to ramp that up," she said. "We're excited. We need the space because it (the certification) is going to happen."
The state board action Friday during a meeting in Price involves replacing an incentive granted in 2004. That earlier incentive could have totaled more than $34.8 million and was geared to the company bringing in up to 500 jobs.
The new deal, for the 1,255 new jobs, is a tax rebate projected at up to $35.26 million. The company must remain in Utah for 15 years and pay at least 25 percent above the Weber County median wage. The projected wages are expected to average $32,479, which is 32 percent above the county median, board documents show.
Details about the jobs will be posted at www.adamaircraft.com.
The new jobs will be added beginning in March and continuing until the end of 2009.The expansion represents a $160 million capital investment for the company.
The projected new state wages are $303.8 million over 10 years and $576 million over 15 years. Projected new state tax revenue is $57 million over a decade and $118.6 million over 15 years.
The Ogden Redevelopment Agency has committed an estimated $1.2 million in tax increments over 14 years.
E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com