PLANS FOR HOUSTON PLANT TAKING SHAPE
June 15, 2002
Originally published in The Telegraph

Aerospace parts work slated to start by September.

The president of an Atlanta aerospace company says his company will "definitely" hire 200 people and open an aircraft parts manufacturing plant in Warner Robins.

Thomas Mensah, president and CEO of Georgia Aerospace Manufacturing, said in February he hoped to buy a vacant building on Osi-gian Boulevard and hire 200 people within six months to a year.

Mensah said those plans are definite now, though it will likely be May before his purchase of the 12-year-old, 50,000-square-foot speculative building is complete.

Meanwhile, the company has reached agreements with Middle Georgia Technical College and the Middle Georgia Consortium for training and recruitment of workers. Some of that training, he said, will be at the Advanced Technology Development Center on Osigian.

"They'll go straight from the classroom across the street to do hands-on application," Mensah said.

Don McRae, director of the Middle Georgia Consortium, said the organization hopes to help retrain workers who have been or will be laid off at the Vought Aircraft Industries parts plant in Perry. The plant will close this year, having moved or eliminated 365 jobs.

The consortium will help with training by using grant money to reimburse Georgia Aerospace Manufacturing for some of the associated costs, McRae said.

Mensah said Middle Georgia Technical College in Warner Robins will handle most of the actual training.

The Georgia Aerospace plant should be making composite parts for the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter by September, Mensah said. The F-22 is built by Lockheed Martin Corp. in Marietta, and the F-35 also is being developed by that company.

Mensah said once he buys the building, work will begin almost immediately on preparations for the plant, including addition of a fence and security cameras, since some work done at the plant will be classified.

The Houston County Development Authority agreed Feb. 28 to issue $4 million in industrial revenue bonds for Georgia Aerospace Manufacturing to renovate, the building and purchase equipment.

Morgan Law, executive director of the authority, said Mensah has signed a document agreeing' 'to the terms of the bond issue. Law said he feels more certain now that the deal will go through than he did two months ago.

"Every piece of paper I get that further documents this process makes me more comfortable," Law said.

Mensah said in February he chose a site in Houston County because it is home to Robins Air Force Base and surrounding defense contractors. Because of that, he said, there is a pool of workers who already know a lot about aircraft parts.

"We want Middle Georgia to be the leading center for advanced composites for the military," Mensah said.

For more information contact Pat Topping with Macon Economic Development Commission

478-621-2030
P.O. Box 169
Macon, Georgia 31202