by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
At little more than a half-hour, Thursday’s meeting of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission (JEDC) wasn’t the longest in history, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t productive.
Commissioners unanimously approved a proposed lease agreement that will put Alenia North America in business on a day-to-day basis in Jacksonville. The company manufactures the C-27J short-take-off cargo aircraft that will become a mainstay in the inventories of all branches of the U.S. military. It is relocating its assembly plant from Italy to Jacksonville, the result of a Qualified Target Industry (QTI) tax incentive package approved by the JEDC in August and subsequently enacted by the City Council. The proposed lease will also have to receive approval from the Council.
Alenia proposes to lease 10,700 square feet of space in a currently empty building at Cecil Commerce Center. Following improvements to the interior of the building that will be paid for by Alenia, the company will move in its top management personnel, engineers, construction supervisors and a human resources department which will begin recruiting workers for the assembly plant.
The proposed lease is for 10,700 square feet of space at $11 per square foot including common area maintenance charges. The term is for 18 months with 12 one-month renewable options.
“It’s great to be able to fill a non-performing asset with a market-rate lease,” said JEDC Chief Lindsey Ballas. She also said the interior improvements will segregate Alenia’s space from the remaining 3,000 square feet of floor space in the building, so an opportunity exists to get an additional tenant in the future.
Rick Brackett of Peduzzi Associates, an aerospace business development consultant who represented Alenia at the meeting, said the terms of the lease will expire by May 2010 when Alenia will have its assembly plant up and running. The company will at that time move its personnel into the permanent facility.
“Alenia currently has no presence in the city. We need to move in our people because we’re setting up business in Jacksonville,” said Brackett.
The reason part of the office space Alenia proposes to lease will be occupied by a recruiting team is because, Brackett said, “One of the attractions of Jacksonville is the great labor pool here. We’re going to need more than 350 people to assemble the aircraft and we know workers here have above average skills, both in terms of former military personnel and also from other industries.”
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