BREAKING NEWS - Aeronautics company will build new facility at Global TransPark
By Matthew Whittle
Published in News on May 14, 2008 3:17 PM
Vindication came today for all those involved in the North Carolina Global TransPark as Gov. Mike Easley traveled to Kinston today to oversee the announcement that Spirit AeroSystems Inc. will be bringing more than $570 million in investments and 1,000 new jobs over the next six years to eastern North Carolina.
“The Global TransPark was built to help this region make the transition from a tobacco-dependent economy to one that attracts knowledge-based, high-tech industries,” Easley said. “This has not always been popular, but today, we start to silence all the naysayers.”
Spirit, which is based in Wichita, Kansas, specializes in manufacturing composites, fuselages, pylons (pieces holding the engine to the wing), nacelles (engine components) and wing structures.
Among its customers are Airbus, Boeing, Gulfstream, Cessna and Hawker Beechcraft.
Wages for the positions, which will number about 500 to start, will average $48,000, not including benefits — more than the Lenoir County average of $27,000.
Helping fund incentives for the project are: $5 million from the state’s One North Carolina Fund, a Job Development Investment Grant awarded by the state’s Economic Investment Committee that could yield as much as $20.23 million over 12 years, and a $100 million Golden LEAF Foundation grant.
The company, which will be building a new facility at the TransPark, is hoping to begin operations within the next 18 months.
For more details, please see Thursday's print edition of the Goldsboro News-Argus.