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Week of July 17, 2008 |
| Miami in running to get aviation manufacturer, 400-plus jobs By Risa PolanskyMiami-Dade may land the international headquarters of a German aviation manufacturer that plans to build a fully certified aircraft — an operation that would create 410 jobs if the project takes off here. County commissioners are to consider in September $1.6 million in incentive deals meant to lure the company. Others in the running include Long Beach, CA, North and South Carolina, the United Arab Emirates, Croatia and Indonesia. The company is to choose a location by fall and could begin hiring by winter, county documents say. Construction would begin in January. Miami-Dade does not identify prospective companies during the courting process. But records reveal the company during four years would create 410 new jobs — 199 of them in the first year — paying an average $57,000 annual salary. It also would invest $55 million in renovating a 250,000 square-foot for-lease facility at the Opa-Locka Airport. The manufacturer has applied for a total $3.9 million in state and local incentives, which essentially reward companies with tax refunds based on jobs created. "Incentives are decisive to the location decision and are necessary to offset start-up costs," county documents say. No funds are to be provided to the company until it meets its job-creation benchmarks. Other factors listed as important to the company's location decision include land allocation, labor costs capital investment, tax relief and human resources assistance. The company plans also to establish an aerospace research and development center "and center of excellence that will bring vendors and related industry companies to the same location as an industry cluster," documents say. The "project will create a worldwide center of excellence" and establish a "niche aviation market" here.
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