Look Ma... No Hurricanes!!

It's nice to be on the short list: as an interviewee, as a vendor, as a city. According to reports in a Florida newspaper, count Albuquerque, NM, as one of the five US cities on Piper's "short list" for a new assembly plant for its PiperJet.

Other cities in this elite group, reported the New Mexico Business Weekly Friday, include Tallahassee and Vero Beach, FL, Columbia, SC, and Oklahoma City.

The proverbial "unnamed sources" in Albuquerque told the Business Weekly that Piper is considering Albuquerque in part because of the strong aviation group growing there, led, or course, by Eclipse Aviation. Another reason Albuquerque may be a strong candidate? Just ask Florida business owners. The cost of hurricane insurance has risen exorbitantly.

Albuquerque is a high desert landlocked community in the southwestern US, and Albuquerque does not have hurricanes.

Piper spokesman Mark Miller would only confirm the company is searching for a site.

"We used to pay about $400,000 a year for property insurance. Now it's nearly $5 million per year, and there are other costs as well," he said. "We owe it to shareholders and employees to be the most competitive we can be, but that's difficult because of the very high insurance costs."

Local Albuquerque economic development officials are not ready to count their chickens before they hatch. However, if Piper selects the Duke City, the plant would likely be built at the Double Eagle II Airport on the city's Westside... where, not by coincidence, Eclipse Aviation is also constructing new manufacturing facilities.

FMI: www.piper.com, www.abq.org, www.cabq.gov/econdev