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Sedgwick County Commissioners approve an incentive plan to give $1 million to partially fund the construction of two new parking lots for the Bombardier Learjet plant.
The company needs the lots to expand its plant and create hundreds of new jobs. The vote was 4 to 1, Commissioner Richard Ranzau was the lone no vote."Just look at the numbers," Ranzau said. "We need it more than they do."
Ranzau said the county is operating in the red, and feels Bombardier should come up with the money on its own.
"We've had a lot of people here who support this," Ranzau said. "Why don't they go out and fund raise a million dollars."
The planemaker announced November 14th it's considering a $52.7 million expansion project that would construct
three 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 needed the city and county to put up $1 million each to build the new parking lots on Mid-Continent airport property. Learjet would then lease the lots back at market value. The entire project should pay back the original investment and generate another $1.5 million.
Wichita city council members already approved the $1 million commitment on November 15.
Learjet still needs additional incentives from the state to move forward with it's expansion. If all goes well, expect construction to begin in Spring 2012