USPS Publication Number 16300
T h is C o m mu n i t y N ewsp a p er is a pu bl ica t ion of E sca m bia / S a n t a Rosa B a r Assoc ia t ion
Se r v i ng t he Fi r st Jud icial Ci rcu it
Section A, Page 1
Vol. 18, No. 47
Visit The Summation Weekly Online: www.summationweekly.com
November 28, 2018
1 Section, 8 Pages
Cleared for Landing: Hayward Inks $35 Million Expansion Deal with Singapore Company By Will Isern
One of the largest economic development deals to ever come to Pensacola just got bigger. Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward travelled to Singapore in October to sign a memorandum of understanding with Singapore Technologies Engineering, the parent company of VT Mobile Aerospace Engineering whose $46 million aircraft maintenance facility began operations at the Pensacola International Airport in June. The MOU between the city and ST Engineering formalizes an agreement that the company will invest an additional $35 million toward an expansion of the airport facility, creating 1,325 new jobs. The signing took place at ST Engineering headquarters in Singapore and FloridaWest Economic Develop Alliance CEO Scott Luth and Escambia County Board of County Commissioners chairman Jeff Bergosh were also on hand.
“This is an incredible opportunity for Pensacola and Escambia County, and has been a strong collaboration between the city, the county, the state, the federal government and Triumph Gulf Coast Inc.,” Hayward said after the signing. “Working together, we hope to grow ST Engineering in our region and state into one of the world’s best Aerospace MRO campus.” ST Engineering president and CEO Vincent Chong said the agreement deepens the relationship between his company and the City of Pensacola, Escambia County and the State of Florida. “With funding support from the city, county and state, ST Engineering is now able to embark on this project to build the Pensacola Aerospace campus – state of the art facilities that will bring good-paying jobs to more people in the Pensacola area,” Chong said. “Tapping the lush resource of military aviation veterans as well as the pool of engineering and aviation talent, we will collec-
tively develop a highly-skilled and robust aerospace workforce in the area.” The investment by the company is one of the requirements for the project to receive an additional $56 million in Triumph Gulf Coast grant funding resulting from the BP oil spill. The Triumph Gulf Coast board selected the project in July to receive the largest allocation of funding to date, if the city could secure the additional funding. In March, Gov. Rick’s Scott’s office announced the awarding of $4 million in Florida Job Growth Grant Funding for the City of Pensacola to develop additional taxiways, ramps and other infrastructure at Pensacola International Airport as part of the project. All told, the project has about $118 million committed from the state, Escambia County and city. The city is seeking an additional $50 million from the Florida Department of Transportation, $20 million from the Governor’s Job Growth Fund and about $17 in fed-
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eral grants, leaving about $5 million to fully fund the project. When fully developed, the VT MAE campus will include four maintenance repair and overhaul hangars as well as administrative and warehouse buildings. The efforts to gain a foothold in the aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) sector in Pensacola extend back to 2013 when Hayward and Luth ¬– then of the Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce – first met with executives of VT MAE in Mobile and ST Engineering in Singapore. The deal resulting from those meetings came to fruition with the opening of VT MAE’s 1730,000 square-foot facility in June at the airport and its promise to create 400 jobs at an average salary of $44,500. Chong said since opening the VT MAE Hangar, the company has processed 22 jets for UPS and has serviced Frontier Airline planes on an on-call basis. He said the company projects reaching its 400-employee goal by mid 2020, one year ahead of the timeline set in the original agreement. Hayward said the impact of the jobs created by the partnership with VT MAE will be felt in the region for generations. “When someone has job it changes their life,” Hayward said at the signing ceremony. “They have opportunities for their family and this is going to be growth for our community and for our state and for our regions and to train these incredible people to learn a skill that’s going to last for generations and the economic impact to our community and the great State of Florida and the nation is going to be extremely important.”
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