Spirit gives update to Butterfield

According to Rick Davis of Spirit AeroSystems, the aircraft components manufacturer would not be in Lenoir County without the generous state, city and county incentives package.

“Without them, there was no way,” Davis told U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-Dist 1, who gathered with his staff, GTP and other Spirit officials at the Global TransPark Center recently.

Spirit, based in Wichita, Kan., announced during May 2008 that it would establish a facility at the TransPark to fabricate the components of the center fuselage of Airbus’ A350 aircraft.

The company announced a short time later that part of the A350’s wings would also be built in Kinston.

Davis — Spirit’s North Carolina site operations director — told Butterfield on Friday that Airbus, based in France, has partnered with companies operating facilities in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Kinston to build the various parts of the A350 before they are shipped to Airbus for final assembly.

“Seems like it could all be done in Lenoir County,” Butterfield joked.

Davis said Spirit edged out a competing Airbus supplier because of the incentives offered by North Carolina, including state and county tax credits, payments for creating jobs and investment, discounted city water and sewer rates and a Golden LEAF Foundation grant to help build their facility.

“It didn’t make us any profit, but it allowed us to get our costs down to where we could compete,” Davis said of the incentives package.

Construction on the company’s 500,000 square-foot Kinston facility is on schedule. The majority of the exterior walls have been put up, and construction workers are currently pouring concrete for the floors and manufacturing equipment foundations.

Workers are also testing heating and air conditioning systems, and access roads and parking lots have been built.

Davis said the company planted 1,000 trees and 12,000 aquatic plants around stormwater retention areas on its 304-acre site to absorb nitrogen runoff.

“In essence, we’ve built a wetland,” he said.

The facility is expected to open April 2010 and production is scheduled to begin during July, with the first components delivered in December.

Davis said Spirit “will open the doors” with about 250 employees; about half will be factory floor workers, and the other half being support staff, managers and engineers.

Davis has, for some time, praised the construction companies hired by general contractor Haskell Construction for their professionalism and dedication.

He said Friday that the recession has “allowed us to get very high-quality contractors at competitive prices.”

Davis lauded local and state “partners,” including the N.C. Departments of Commerce and Transportation, the Global TransPark and others for their assistance.

“There has been nothing easy about this effort, but I don’t think we have ever had such a rich set of partners,” he said

David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 or danderson@freedomenc.com.