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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

New Aircraft Manufacturing Facility in Wisconsin Expected to Employ Up to 340 Workers

08/17/2011
The Sheboygan County Board in Wisconsin has authorized a $1 million loan from the state for Morgan Aircraft to support its development of a facility manufacturing vertical take-off and landing aircraft that may potentially employ hundreds of people.

Morgan Aircraft's patented technology allows it to build an entire new class of aircraft: a plane that takes off and lands like a helicopter--but flies like a jet at twice the speed of the helicopter, with a range of over 1,000 miles. Its first delivery of planes is expected in 2016.

According an article by The Sheboygan Press, under the terms of the loan agreement the company will not have to repay the $1 million Community Development Block Grant for Economic Development if it invests $105 million in the project by 2015, and creates 340 new full-time jobs by the end of 2015.

Morgan also is set up to receive $5 million in state economic development loans over the next year; those monies are contingent on the firm securing an additional $10 million in private financing, noted the newspaper.

The company's new world headquarters will be built at Sheboygan County Memorial Airport in the town of Sheboygan Falls, WI. Construction will be on a four-acre plot of land. However, the company has an option to lease 50 more acres if the need arises. The county already has made $1.3 million of infrastructure improvements to the site as part of a 50-year lease and development agreement with Morgan.

When announced almost two years ago in 2009, the project was expected to create up to 2,000 jobs. It was put on hold due to the financing problems associated with the gloomy national economy, but with new injections of financing, is now on the fast track to a ground-breaking ceremony.

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