The Triumph Gulf Coast board gave the green light on Thursday to a $25 million grant for "Project Spinner," an ambitious plan to establish a new aircraft Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul, or "MRO," facility at Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport.
This facility, dedicated to aircraft engine repair, would be the centerpiece of a broader project that also would include a jet engine testing center and a parts distribution hub in the nearby community of Lynn Haven.
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The project would create 500 jobs in the next decade and generate approximately $475 million in additional income that stays in the community, according to Triumph economic advisor Rick Harper. At a cost per job of $50,000 and proposed average wages of $60,000, the facility is expected to generate $19.2 for every dollar invested.
Project Spinner is expected to cost around $107 million in total. The balance would be covered by the company, which has not yet been identified publicly. Becca Hardin, President of Bay County Economic Development Alliance, emphasized the scale of the opportunity on Thursday.
"This will be the single largest economic development new-project announcement ever announced through the Bay County Economic Development Alliance and for the airport authority," she said.
While the proponents of Project Spinner emphasized the potential upside, this new grant also comes at a time when Triumph Gulf Coast is under scrutiny for a previous award to another MRO facility in the region, that one operated by ST Engineering at Pensacola International Airport.
Triumph’s investment in that effort was just one part of a $210 million stack of targeted public investment that has buoyed the company’s efforts in the region.
In recent weeks, ST Engineering has been criticized for the company's treatment of Chilean workers, who allege that they were brought to the U.S. under promises of long-term employment and potential green cards and instead were fired and left to fend for themselves.
Mark Shelton, Board Chair of the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport Authority, reassured the Triumph board of his project’s solid planning and execution, emphasizing that the airport authority and its partners were prepared to manage the project responsibly.
"We won't be an applicant that you have to worry about distributing the funds to," he said. "I'll guarantee you that ... We got our I's dotted our T's crossed on this."
The first phase of construction for the new MRO facility is expected to begin early next year.
