The Huntsville-Madison County Airport Authority approved a resolution Tuesday to grant ad valorem tax abatements of $207,020 over 10 years to Huntsville-based Advanced Systems Technology, which is planning a $3.7 million relocation to Jetplex Industrial Park.
The board also voted to grant the company sales and use abatements of $50,910, which will not be offered annually and will expire on the date the project is placed in service, said Brooks Kracke, director of the Jetplex Industrial Park.
Due to extensive growth during the past decade, Advanced Systems Technology has outgrown its current facility at 290 Pinehurst Drive. Relocating will help the company meet demand by purchasing a larger manufacturing facility in the Jetplex Industrial Park at 165 Electronics Boulevard.
“Currently, they are located outside of the park and this relocation will allow them to expand into a larger facility,” Kracke said during an airport authority meeting. “They plan to close on the building this week.”
Kracke said he is also working with an existing Jetplex tenant that is planning an expansion at the park. The service-related company, which was not revealed due to confidentiality reasons, is growing in North Alabama and Tennessee.
The airport has received bids for the Group IV East Runway System. The low bidder was Reed Construction with a bid of $27,800,631. Deputy Director Luther Roberts said the bid has been forwarded to the Federal Aviation Administration in an effort to receive discretionary funding by the end of the fiscal year.
Roberts said the FAA has also approved plans to construct Taxiway F as part of the Group IV upgrade, which is projected to cost about $1.5 million.
“We plan to bid this project during September and complete construction prior to starting improvements on our Group VI East Runway System,” he said.
In August, passenger traffic at the Huntsville International Airport dropped 12.8 percent from the same period last year, resulting in a year-to-date traffic decrease of 14.1 percent below last year. Fiscal 2014 passenger totals for the first two months are 7.3 percent below budget projections.
Rail cargo traffic jumped 0.6 percent year-over-year in August, causing annual totals to be 1.6 percent above 2012. Air cargo landing weights declined 17.7 percent in July from a year earlier.
http://www.al.com/business/index.ssf/2013/09/huntsville_airport_traffic_dec.html