Aircraft Services Educational Facility Will Call Cecil Field Home

At the end of a ceremony marking 10 years since the Navy handed over the former Master Jet Base at Cecil Field Naval Air Station  to the City of Jacksonville, Florida State College Jacksonville broke ground on a $20 million Aircraft Services Educational complex to compliment its aviation program.

The facility will join such tenants as The Boeing Company, Flightstar Aircraft Services, Northrop Grumman, CDI, General Dynamics, Fleet Readiness Center Southeast, LSI, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida Army National Guard, Woods Group Pratt & Whitney, L-3 Communications – Titan Group, Department of Homeland Security - U.S. Coast Guard, Jacksonville JetPort and Department of Homeland Security - Customs and Border Protection.

The 104,000-square-foot aircraft painting facility will consist of one hangar bay capable of housing an aircraft up to the size of a Boeing 767 and two hangar bays capable of housing a Boeing 757 size aircraft in addition to shop, office, and other space set aside for the educational component.

The $20 million complex is being funded by the Jacksonville Aviation Authority (JAA) and Florida State College at Jacksonville, and will provide about 200 new jobs when it opens in the fall of 2010. Flightstar Aircraft Services, a current tenant at Cecil, will operate the facility.

The college currently has programs for pilot training, aircraft maintenance, aviation operations, and A&P prep courses at Cecil Field.

The 6,000-acre airport portion of Cecil Commerce Center includes three, 8,000-foot runways, one 12,500-foot runway and 1.4 million square feet of aircraft hangar and office space. Today, Cecil Field has 11 mostly aviation-related tenants that together account for about 3,000 jobs.

FMI: www.jaa.aero, http://www.fccj.edu/campuses/cecil_south/index.html