CRESTVIEW AIR PARK BEING PROMOTED AT ORLANDO BUSINESS CONFERENCE

If you have been following my updates on the growth of this area and the focus on the aerospace industry, you will understand Crestview Industrial Air Park is something which should draw a large number of new businesses to our area. The State of Florida has made Crestview Airpark a target of growth with millions of dollars given to improve the infrastructure at this location. Many in the Aerospace Industry see this as a bedrock for military weapons testing and overhaul of aircraft for many years to come. READ ON -


Okaloosa County team promoting Crestview Air Park in Orlando
Dusty Ricketts
2009-10-14 16:54:19
A delegation supporting Okaloosa County will attend the world’s largest aviation business conference in Orlando next week to try to lure companies to Bob Sikes Airport’s industrial park.
The National Business Aviation Association is holding its annual convention Oct. 20-23 to promote all facets of the commercial aerospace industry. Among the 30,000 people from around the world expected to attend will be more than a dozen county and business leaders to promote the Crestview Air Park at Bob Sikes Airport.

“If we do get someone to come over here as a tenant of the industrial park, a manufacturer, an aerospace company, what ever it may be, that will bring opportunity for lenders, for banks, for Realtors, for everyone in the community to be involved with somehow,” said Derek Lott, vice president of First National Bank of Crestview and chairman of the Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce’s airport committee. “Especially if it’s a big home run like L3, NEW or Segers Aerospace. Those guys came here and they brought high-paying jobs and they brought a lot of jobs.”

All 950,000 square feet of the Orange County Convention Center’s North/South Building will be filled with exhibitors from the aerospace industry.

Lott said Bob Sikes Airport makes an attractive location for prospective businesses because of its 8,000-foot runway and its proximity to highways, the Gulf of Mexico and military bases. The local delegation also will try to sell Bob Sikes based on its location away from freezing winters of the north and far enough from the coast to be protected from most hurricane damage.
Greg Donovan, the county’s airports director, said $22 million has been spent on upgrading the infrastructure at the park in the past three years.

Donovan said county representatives attended last year’s convention with the Okaloosa County Economic Development Council and Florida’s Great Northwest. This will be the first year the county will have its own booth.

“For us to exhibit is a strong step in the right direction. If you go back a few years we weren’t marketing Crestview at all,” Donovan said.