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OGDEN, Utah (AP) -- A news conference was scheduled Wednesday at which Adam Aircraft Industries was expected to announced that it will locate a new plant at Ogden-Hinckley Airport.
The plant is expected to employ several hundred workers, newspapers reported.
The Englewood, Colo.-based company produces $1 million to $2 million jets for business and personal use.
State and local government and business officials have been wooing Adam Aircraft for more than a year. A bill passed in the 2003 Utah Legislature created a tax increment incentive offering aviation and aerospace companies partial rebates of state taxes they pay.
The company will operate a manufacturing plant in a new building at the airport's recently completed Skypark and Gateway Center, a 30-acre executive park at the south end of the airport, the Standard-Examiner said.
Adam Aircraft has signed an agreement with the state and with Kemp Development, which manages the airport, the newspaper said. The tax increment incentive is part of the deal, it said.
City and state officials would not confirm the deal pending the news conference.
However, other officials, including Dave Harmer, former head of state Department of Economic Development, confirmed it, The Salt Lake Tribune said in a copyright story.
"We worked on this for a year and a half or more, so I'm particularly tickled to see (the plant) coming to Ogden," Harmer said.
Harmer was among more than 50 economic development officials Huntsman fired when he took office. Harmer became Ogden's public services director, and has continued to work on the deal.
Harmer said the Adam Aircraft deal validates the economic development work the department did during his tenure. "There were a lot of very good things going on."
In discussions with Utah officials last spring, Adam said northern Utah's highly trained aerospace work force, fostered by its proximity to Hill Air Force Base, put Utah ahead of Louisville, Ky., and sites in Texas as a plant location.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
