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Alenia North America looks elsewhere for plant site
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
Despite being deeply immersed in a joint venture to build fuselages for the new Boeing Dreamliner 787 in North Charleston, Alenia North America has decided to look elsewhere for potential sites for a $200 million plant to build cargo planes for the U.S. Army and Air Force.
Ben Stone, spokesman for Alenia North America, said the company had been considering locations in seven states, including South Carolina, and had received several proposals from the Palmetto State alone.
However, shortly before the Easter and Passover holidays, the company shortened its list of prospective plant sites to three states and four specific locations.
“Unfortunately, South Carolina wasn’t among them,” he said.
Stone declined to reveal which locations are still in the running.
Alenia North America and Dallas-based Vought Aircraft Industries are building a $560 million manufacturing center here that will make two large fuselage components for the Dreamliner 787 aircraft. The plant, which is adjacent to Charleston International Airport, will open in July.
The U.S. Army and the Air Force want a light-cargo aircraft for war-zone transport missions and other short-range flights.
Giuseppi Giordo, president and CEO of Alenia North America, said Global Military Aircraft Systems, a joint venture between Alenia North America and L-3 Communications Holdings, located in New York, is hoping to settle on the C-27J Spartan Airlifter, a twin-engine turboprop. An Italian affiliate of Alenia North America helped develop that aircraft.
Last month, Giordo announced that South Carolina, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas were in the running for the plant and that a site would be selected by mid-May.
Even then, the venture would be highly speculative, as the Defense Department doesn’t plan to announce the contract award until some time in December.
Business development people here thought Charleston had a good chance at winning the plant because the Charleston International Commerce Park, site of the 382-acre Vought-Alenia plant, still has 118 acres available for development.
In the end, neither Charleston nor the state as a whole met Alenia North America’s “minimum requirements” for the new plant, Stone said.
“While this isn’t the best of news for the Charleston region, I would note that this isn’t the only work package we anticipate transferring from Italy to the United States. It’s merely the first,” Stone said.
“Along with that, I should emphasize that we intend to support the state of South Carolina in the future because we know and appreciate how much the people of the state have supported us,” he added.
Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.
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