Company To Invest $50M at Airport

Apr. 25—GUILFORD COUNTY — Military C-130 transport aircraft will become a common sight at Piedmont Triad International Airport in the coming years.

Marshall USA LLC, a subsidiary of the United Kingdom's largest privately owned aerospace and defense business, said Tuesday it will invest $50 million there over four years to establish a maintenance, repair and engineering facility focusing on the Hercules C-130, a four-engine turboprop plane used around the world.

The company expects to create about 240 jobs, with an annual payroll of more than $18 million, Gov. Roy Cooper's office announced.

PTIA will be Marshall's base of operations in the United States.

The first phase of development will entail construction of one hangar with six bays for aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul and one additional paint bay, with start of operations planned for early 2025, the company said in a press release.

Marshall Aerospace's project will be facilitated in part by a state Job Development Investment Grant approved by the state's Economic Investment Committee on Tuesday. Using a formula that takes into account the new tax revenues and the company's investment, the JDIG agreement authorizes the potential reimbursement to the company of up to $2.4 million, spread over 12 years, a state press release said. State payments occur only after verification the company has met job creation and investment targets.

Over the course of the 12-year term of this grant, the project is estimated to grow the state's economy by $1.9 billion, the state press release said.

Marshall Aerospace is one of the largest independent aerospace and defense companies in the world and offers engineering, support solutions and services on civil and military aircraft.

It has 55 years of experience with the C-130, the company said. Its customers include the U.S. Marine Corps and other C-130 operators across Europe, North America, Africa and the Middle East.

Marshall's new facility will be built on 25 acres near where work is underway for Boom Supersonic's manufacturing plant, which is expected to build supersonic passenger jets, PTIA Executive Director Kevin Baker said. The airport has already done most of the grading needed before Marshall's work can get started.

Representatives of Marshall first came to PTIA two years ago, but the grading of the site was not in anticipation of landing the Marshall project, Baker said. It was just in hopes that some industrial recruitment target would pick the site, and Baker said the airport does grading routinely so that sites can be ready when a company is looking for a site.

That is a factor — others include the local highway system and utilities that are close to the development sites — that has helped PTIA gain prominence in aerospace industrial recruitment, he said.

Boom Supersonic was the largest of those projects, pledging to create 1,760 jobs and invest $500 million in the project by the end of the decade.

Paul Mengert, the chairman of the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority, said the airport has taken off as an industrial hub, home to companies employing more than 8,600 workers, and it has a $9.6 billion annual economic impact. The airport authority wants to build it into the foremost aerospace campus in the country.

Baker said he thinks it already is that.

"We're so far out in front of every other site," Baker said. "The industry's watching. There's no question."

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