MASCOUTAH, Ill. (AP) — A southwestern Illinois county is selling millions of dollars in bonds to finance expansions of two companies at a struggling airport it owns, believing the move could create 60 jobs.
The St. Clair County Board has approved $3.65 million in bonds to help pay for growth of North Bay Produce and Boeing Co. operations at the MidAmerica St. Louis Airport, which is about 25 miles east of St. Louis, the Belleville News-Democrat reported (http://bit.ly/11F6V0Y).
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Both companies have agreed to repay the county through renewed lease agreements.
Most of the bonds — about $3.5 million — will fund an 18,000-square-foot expansion of the 36,000-square-foot refrigerated warehouse of North Bay, which in return will extend its lease by eight years, to a total of 23 years, and pay back the cost of the bonds. Once completed, officials said, the expansion will grow the produce company’s workforce there to 80 employees, more than double the 32 now.
“We believe we have a true partnership with the county and North Bay,” said the company’s president, Mark Girardin. “If we could we’d borrow against the building ourselves but we can’t, and we need to use this tool.”
The bonds also will pay for a Boeing’s expansion of an assembly plant at MidAmerica, where the aerospace company makes equipment for the F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet, the CH-47 Chinook helicopter and the C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft.
As part of that $100,000 project, the county is to cover upfront costs and Boeing eventually will reimburse the county through increased rent during its remaining six-year lease, said Tim Cantwell, the airport’s director.
MidAmerica has struggled since opening with great fanfare in 1998 as an alternative to St. Louis’ Lambert International Airport. But the airport has never turned a profit, raising nagging questions about its usefulness as critics persistently have labeled it a $330 million boondoggle.
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Information from: Belleville News-Democrat, http://www.bnd.com
