NEW AEROSPACE COMPANY RELOCATES TO CRESTVIEW AIRPORT

As promised, companies continue to move to the Crestview Airport. Yes, the Army’s 7th Special Forces and the F-35 Training Squadron is having an massive impact on us. However, as I have said many times before, they are just a trigger. The Crestview Industrial Airpark continues to be a draw and the State keeps sending money to the County for improvements, the latest being close to $5M for runway improvements. The allows this airport to land any plane the world has to offer, which it has with the C-5A and the Russians, equilvant. Not to bore you with the same, but I can assure you, more is on the way with more new companies and more expansions of existing tenants at the Airport.

Company to relocate to Bob Sikes Airport
June 13, 2011 5:31 PM
Dusty Ricketts
Daily News
CRESTVIEW — Al Ingle had an opportunity to move his company Capital Avionics to Okaloosa County six years ago, but opted to stay in Tallahassee. It’s a decision he not only regrets but is rectifying. A satellite office for Capital Avionics will open at Bob Sikes Airport in Crestview this week, the first step in transitioning the entire business operation to Okaloosa County. “There are no business opportunities in aviation at the Tallahassee airport,” Ingle said. “(In Okaloosa County) the people are so friendly and so proactive, I feel like I’m coming home to come to these folks. They’re so nice and so helpful. “It’s just a great business environment in Crestview, and Tallahassee has just a poor business environment,” Ingle added. Capital Avionics is not a large company, currently employing 15 people, but Larry Sassano, president of the Economic Development Council of Okaloosa County, said it is an important one for the area. Capital Avionics creates custom-designed testing equipment for companies in the aviation field, and the company already has clients in Okaloosa County. “There aren’t many avionics operations in Florida,” Sassano said. “The closest one to here I think is in Jacksonville. That’s a real benefit to have someone like that in our park because it helps companies like Emerald Coast Aviation as well.” The EDC is working with the state on securing business incentives available to Capital Avionics. Ingle said he expects to hire four employees for the initial Okaloosa County branch of his business. He then plans to build a new 15,500-square-foot hangar and 12,000-square-foot component repair and equipment testing facility at Bob Sikes and move the remaining Capital Avionics employees over once that is completed. Ingle said it will take about two years to complete the two buildings and he expects the staff to have doubled in size by that time. “He’s a sharp businessman; he knows his products very well and he’s passionate about it,” Sassano said. “He’ll be a real asset for us. He’s filling a gap there and he’ll help a lot of the companies in that park because he’s already doing business with some of them.”