Jul. 18—For years aircraft have come from around the country to the Acadiana Regional Airport and into the headquarters of Aviation Exteriors for exterior painting and other details.
Recently the company expanded into maintenance and repair. Now the company and its 200 employees hope to double its employee count and physical footprint with 200,000-square-foot maintenance repair and overhaul facility along with other amenities to handle more aircraft.
The $74 million project got a boost Thursday when U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy announced a $2 million grant from the Delta Regional Authority to help fund the project as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The company, which now goes by Avex, gave Cassidy and guests a tour of their facility after the announcement. The new hangar will be built just north of its current site, which is near the massive First Solar plant currently under construction.
"There's always demand for good repair stations like us," said Avex president Joseph Ng, speaking on behalf of CEO Jerry Hernandez. "As long as the work is performed with quality, on time and competitive in the pricing, we don't need a marketing department. The work comes to us."
The competition in its lane, he noted, are often international companies, and the additional hangar should add capacity and allow crews to work on six airplanes at once.
Currently the company can get a plane completed in 12-14 days at any of its three spaces at the current hangar, which range from a 30,000-square-foot space for a 757 to the 57,000-square-foot space that can house a 747.
The company can eventually add jobs that will range in salary from $50,000 to $75,000, Cassidy's office announced. Ng noted the expansion could eventually push that job total up near 500.
"It will create hundreds of new jobs and create a future for people who live in this parish and won't have to leave to go to another parish or another state," Cassidy said. "It's going to take graduates from the community college and give them a pipeline to prosperity."
It's the latest move for the growing company after it announced a $2.5 million expansion two years ago that kicked off its maintenance and conversion program.
The state offered an incentive package that included the services of LED FastStart and a performance-based grant for upgrades. It was also expected to participate in the state's industrial tax exemption program.
"These enhancements will support our existing tenants, attract new businesses and ensure the long-term economic sustainability for our region," Iberia Parish President M. Larry Richard said. "We are thrilled about the prospect of creating hundreds of new jobs that will significantly boost our local economy. This project is not just about infrastructure. It's about driving economic growth and ensuring a viable future for Iberia Parish."
Cassidy touted the funding as a benefit of the federal infrastructure bill that was passed in both houses in 2011 despite significant opposition from Republicans. The bill, which Cassidy voted in favor of, resulted in $9.11 billion for projects in Louisiana, which also included high-speed broadband in rural areas of the state.
The funding for Avex came through the Delta Regional Authority, the agency that serves as a conduit between federal funding and local programs to benefit the economy of the lower Mississippi River and Alabama Black Belt regions in regard to transportation, public infrastructure, workforce training and business development.
The DRA received $150 million as part of the bill, which was nearly five times the annual appropriation for the agency, said Josh McNemar, DRA executive director. The rest of Louisiana's delegation, except Democrat Congressman Troy Carter, voted against the bill.
"This is just one small piece of what the infrastructure bill is doing for our state," Cassidy said. "So far we've gotten $1.4 billion for just broadband. Folks in Lafayette or Baton Rouge or Shreveport, you may not appreciate what it means to have high-speed, affordable internet, but when you live in a in a rural parish, it means a heck of a lot."
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