(WICHITA, Kan.)—
Wichita City Council members votes to give $1 million dollars to partially fund construction of a new parking lot near Bombardier Learjet plant to help company expand and create new jobs. The vote was 5-0, the mayor and one other member were not present at Tuesday's meetingThe planemaker announced Monday it's considering a $52.7 million expansion project that would construct 3 new buildings at its plant on Tyler Road in West Wichita and add 450 new jobs by 2017. The plans include adding a new aircraft delivery center, a new production flight center for testing new aircraft prior to delivery and a new paint facility for the Learjet 85 program.
But to move forward, the company is asking the city and county to put up $1 million each to build a new parking lot on Mid-Continent airport property. Learjet would then lease that lot back at market value. The entire project should pay back the original investment and generate another $1.5 million.
County Commissioners will discuss the issue at their meeting on November 23.
