City Aims To Bring Av Jobs To Central Texas

by ANN Associate Editor Rob Finfrock

Waco, Texas exists in the shadow of its much larger neighbors, the sprawling Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex to the north and the booming cities of Austin and San Antonio to the south. The city of 118,000 also faces something of a stigma, as it's likely best known to most for two things: it's proximity to Crawford, TX (25 miles to the west) and its famous part-time resident... and, alas, a certain cult standoff, the resolution of which is still fresh in many minds 12 years later.

But Waco is on the move. Offering a more relaxed pace, lower cost of living and advertising a better quality of life than its larger neighbors, the city is actively recruiting new industries, and is especially catering to young professionals looking to escape the bustle of larger cities.

Interestingly, one of the ways the city is doing that is by pushing forward with its efforts to build a large commercial airpark on land adjacent to the Texas State Technical College, and its nicely-sized towered airfield (CNW) featuring two runways of 8,600-foot and 6,300-foot in length.

According to Pat Nowotney, Senior VP for Economic Development for the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce, the move to push ahead with creating the Waco International Airpark was not a spur of the moment decision, but rather the logic result of an ongoing process began over a decade ago.

"We started about 10-to-12 years ago, by acquiring 1000 acres of property adjacent to our technical college state airport in Waco," explained Nowotney (right).  "We weren't quite ready for development then, because our aviation business development 10 years ago hadn't progressed to the point we saw much demand... [but] in the past five years, the demand for an airpark like this just increased."

To support the development of the airpark, a group of 30 Waco-based aviation-related businesses, including such well-known names as Blackhawk Modifications and RAM Aircraft, formed to work with the chamber of commerce.

"With more than 1000 aviation companies within a 500-mile radius and a central location in the heart of the Texas manufacturing and technology corridor, Waco is a prime location for the aviation industry," states the organization on its website.

The group expects to break ground on the project next summer, beginning with underlying infrastructure and laying the taxiways leading from the airport to Waco International Air Park. The group anticipates as many as 200 tenants, eventually, for the air park.

Nowotney believes several factors make the airpark attractive to those who had perhaps previously considered settling in Dallas, with its large aerospace community, or further south towards San Antonio or even Houston. For one, Waco doesn't exist under a Class Bravo umbrella -- the only recurring air space concern is the Crawford TFR. And while Waco is a small city, it is within a few hours' drive (or much quicker hop by plane) from larger cities.

"Comparing Dallas Fort Worth/Austin-San Antonio, we have all the ingredients to set us apart," said Nowotney. "Thirty aviation and aerospace companies, two colleges, one university... the level of training and the workforce sets us a little bit apart."

"We're a good location to attract employees because of a quality of life, as well as a little bit lower cost of living... 90 percent cost of living compared to other large cities."

Response to the airpark has been extremely positive, according to Nowotney. Aero-News can vouch for that -- at the recent NBAA conference in Orlando, the group's booth across from the Raytheon display consistently had a crowd around it, seemingly an about-equal mix of the genuinely interested and the merely curious.

The project has also attracted the attention of two notable personalities in the aviation world -- former NBAA president Jack Olcott, who is currently president of NJ-based General Aero Company; and Marshall Puckett, owner of AvReps International in New Mexico. Both industry heavyweights bring their expertise and contacts to the project, giving the Alliance additional inroads into the aero-world. 

"I want to get an aircraft manufacturing operation in Waco, and I think it's very doable," said Puckett in an interview with the Waco Tribune-Herald. "I'm talking with two manufacturers right now, and I'm getting very serious with one."

"I'll... keep my eye out for companies that want to be located in a vibrant area," said Olcott (right). "I'll use my network, so to speak, to keep abreast of what's happening in general aviation."

You can also count Nowotney among those who believes that once companies see what the Greater Waco Aviation Alliance is doing, they may just want to locate their efforts there.

"We've already seen that companies have responded once they took a good look at Waco," he said.

FMI: www.wacoaviation.com, www.waco-chamber.com