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Star-Telegram.com: | 03/22/2008 | MD Helicopters rejects Alliance move
MD Helicopters rejects Alliance move
By BOB COX
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
MAP: Helicopter headquarters
STAR-TELEGRAM/DAVE SEYMOUR
MAP: Helicopter headquarters
Lynn Tilton, owner of MD Helicopters, plans to move the company out of Falcon Field in Mesa, Ariz., because of a rent increase there.
MD Helicopters has scratched Alliance Airport in Fort Worth off of its list of possible new home sites, but it still has two nearby airports under consideration.
MD owner Lynn Tilton said Friday that she will visit Dallas Executive Airport and North Texas Regional Airport in Denison next week, two of five sites under consideration for relocating the company.
"I think we'll probably make a decision on which Texas location next week," she said.
The other three sites being considered are Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Shreveport Regional Airport and Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City.
Grayson County Judge Drue Bynum, who is heading the effort to bring MD to the Denison airport, has been working hard to win the competition, Tilton said. Texas economic-development officials have also offered financial incentives.
Tilton says she will definitely move MD's operations from Falcon Field in Mesa, Ariz., after city and airport officials there imposed a steep rent increase. She is looking for a 100-acre parcel and aid to build a 250,000-square-foot facility for manufacturing, assembly, parts storage and distribution.
Tilton wants to combine the operations of MD with those of Grand Prairie-based Heritage Aviation, which she also owns. The two companies combined employ about 375 people and are growing.
Tilton, a brash New York corporate buyout artist, purchased the nearly defunct company in 2005 and has brought it back from the brink of liquidation. After making no helicopters and being unable to deliver spare parts to customers when she took over, the company delivered 32 new aircraft last year and has dramatically improved spare-parts deliveries.
Tilton said the company has turned a profit several months in a row and will "make a lot of money" in 2008 when she expects it to deliver more than 60 helicopters.
Airport and city officials in Shreveport and Oklahoma City "are really recruiting me hard," she said. "Both of them are being very aggressive with us in terms of incentives."
Officials at all of the competing airports were out of the office Friday.
Tilton said she eliminated Alliance from consideration Thursday after meeting with her relocation advisers from Cushman & Wakefield.
Because it already has large corporate tenants like American Airlines, FedEx and Bell Helicopter, Alliance can command a higher price for land and facilities than Tilton wants to pay.
"They already have Bell there, and I don't think they're [Bell] anxious to have us there as well," Tilton said.
Tilton met and had dinner with Ross Perot Jr. and other Alliance representatives last month to hear their pitch. "It was a wonderful meeting," Tilton said. "Ross is very charming, smart and kind."
Alliance spokesman David Pelletier said company officials were notified of Tilton's decision late Thursday.
In addition to the costs of doing business at Alliance, Tilton said her company might more easily attract employees, local attention and resources at a less-competitive location.
"All of those [remaining] locations get me to a place where we'll be very happy on all fronts," Tilton said.
The Arizona Republic reported Thursday that state and local officials were scrounging to show Tilton enough tax and other incentives to persuade her to remain in the area by moving MD's operations to the nearby Gateway Airport.
Mesa City Manager Chris Brady, the newspaper reported, said Arizona would have trouble matching cash incentives being offered by "the state of Texas ... to offset the cost of land and training a work force."
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Originally Posted by metro
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