What are the chances of a jet assembly plant coming to Kansas City?Pretty good, I’d say.But the deal is far, far from a sure thing.
It’s hard to grasp the scope of Bombardier’s potential project. It’s a $375 million facility that will create a complex of 1.3 million square feet.
Once it’s up and running, the facility will employ 2,100 people. That number doesn’t seem so big; it’s fewer than the number of employees at Triumph Foods, the largest economic development project to hit Northwest Missouri in a long, long, long time.
The real eye-popping number, though, is 55,000. That’s the annual average salary that Bombardier reports it will pay. It’s about two and a half times the starting salary Triumph Foods promised when it moved to St. Joseph. The pork plant’s average wage, which includes production and administrative workers, would be higher.
With Triumph, residents fretted the company would want to locate suppliers, i.e. hog farms, close to the factory.
In the case of Bombardier, St. Joe is rolling out a 35-mile long welcome mat hoping to attract suppliers. Apparently, the aerospace industry smells a little better than pig production.
St. Joseph had been resolutely focusing on its strengths of the animal health industry. Suddenly it’s become sensible policy to diversify the employment base and have a piece of the high-tech aircraft pie.
The third largest aircraft manufacturer in the world, Bombardier is no lightweight. In this part of the country, it’s perfectly acceptable to pronounce the company name as Bom-ba-deer. Only north of the border is it necessary to say Bom-bar-dee-aye.
The greatest pressure not to build the plant in the Kansas City will probably come from Canada. Bombardier is based in Montreal and building a factory in the Show-Me State would be about as popular back home as the Kansas City Chiefs holding training camp in Wisconsin.
But don’t underestimate the power of a weak dollar. The dollar’s value, compared to the Canadian looney, makes it very attractive to build in our neck of the woods. It’s the same reason Snorkel, now owned by a British company, is investing so heavily in its Elwood, Kan.
Missouri’s love-hate relationship with Kansas came up in the senate hearing about the economic package proposed to help lure Bombardier. Senators said they didn’t want the jet factory to end up like the NASCAR speedway that located across the border.
St. Joseph got another chance at a pork plant after it thumbed its nose at Seaboard Farms.
It looks like Platte County has another shot at landing some high-speed machines
