Gov. Mike DeWine and local leaders joined economic development officials Wednesday, Oct. 28, to celebrate a new Electra facility in Springfield that will manufacture revolutionary short-runway aircraft.
The manufacturing plant will be built at the National Advanced Air Mobility Center of Excellence.
“There are truly the jobs of the future,” DeWine said. “If I had told anybody … five, six years ago, that within a very short period of time we would be making airplanes in the state of Ohio … that can land on 150 feet of runway, people will look at us like, ‘You are crazy.’ ”
The Virginia-based aerospace company plans to invest $850 million in Clark County and build 1 million square feet of manufacturing space on 87 acres in the Green Twp. JEDD.
A JEDD is an agreement where one or more municipalities and a township agree to partner to develop the township’s land for commercial or industrial use. The municipality receives a portion of the taxes in the JEDD and does not annex the township land.
The project’s estimated total cost is at least $850 million, including $680 million for construction and business fixtures and $170 million for machinery and equipment.
The production facility will create a nine-passenger hybrid-electric aircraft called the EL9 Ultra Short, which is designed to operate from extremely short runways. The company also plans to locate its corporate leadership in the county.
Electra estimates it will bring up to 1,975 jobs with $181 million in payroll, which is considered a “mega-project” by the state.
Marc Allen, the CEO of Electra, demonstrated Electra’s advancements, showing a video of a plane taking off from and landing on a helipad at a pier in Manhattan earlier this week. He applauded the “foresight” in the building of the NAAMCE in Springfield.
J.P. Nauseef, JobsOhio president and CEO, said people thought “we were crazy” to dream about this kind of technology.
“This is a great story about resilience and about determination, and not taking no for an answer,” Nauseef said.
Calling Springfield a “great place to dream it, build it, test it, deploy it, distribute it,” Nauseef also highlighted the region’s strong workforce.
“We like to say you can live your own version of the American dream here and such an important part of that American dream is having a great family and quality of life,” Nauseef said. “And that’s what you’re going to get in Ohio along with an amazing workforce, amazing infrastructure, and people with a can-do attitude.”
Jeff Hoagland, Dayton Development Coalition president and CEO, thanked DeWine for his involvement in the project, saying he is “going out on one of the highest notes, sir, that I could ever imagine.”
Ohio Sen. Kyle Koehler said he was pleased to see Springfield once again become a manufacturing community.
“At the turn of the last century, Springfield was one of the biggest manufacturing towns in the world because the natural road came to Springfield and ended here, and if you’re seeking your fortune in the world, you came west and you stopped where the road stopped. And it’s the reason we were one of the biggest manufacturing communities in the world,” Koehler said. “We’ve been through some hard times. The road ended here. Things got stale, but with what’s happening here, it doesn’t matter whether the road ends anymore. It only has to be 150 feet long, and we’re going to fly.”
Ohio Rep. Bernie Willis lauded all the people who put in the effort to bring this technology to Springfield.
“I take this very very personally to have gotten the grand opportunity to stand in over the last 10 years, watch people from our community that had a great vision, that sat down and actually mapped out a strategy that invested and then partnered together and collaborated to get to the point where we have become the focal point for the next generation of aviation right here in Springfield, Ohio,” Willis said.
The city of Springfield recently approved a 7-year employment incentive agreement, meaning it will share 50% of the taxes generated in the joint economic development district at the Springfield AirPark.
Clark County commissioners previously approved a Community Reinvestment Area with Electra, which means it will get a 100% property tax exemption for 30 years to build its facility and relocate its corporate headquarters to the AirPark. Compensation agreements with the township, Greenon Local School District, and the Clark County Career Center (formerly Springfield-Clark Career Technology Center) ensure each entity receives 25% of the real property tax revenue it would have normally collected.