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Sunday, May 6, 2007 | 
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No Comments [ Add Comment ]By Jeff DeMoss
Standard-Examiner staff
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By Jeff DeMoss
Standard-Examiner staff
OGDEN -- The new executive jet terminal at Ogden-Hinckley Airport is part business center, part culinary adventure and part museum, with all three coming together to form what officials say is becoming a nucleus of the aerospace industry in the Top of Utah.
Visitors to the Kemp Ogden Airport Gateway Center are greeted with large murals depicting early 20th century warplanes, as well as replicas of the planes themselves suspended from the ceiling.
A noted sculptor has rented gallery space in the center, lending additional tourist appeal.
An upscale restaurant and new delicatessen also draw people who might not otherwise visit the center.
Kemp Development Inc., the main developer at the airport, has invested millions of its own dollars while receiving some support from Ogden City, which owns the airport.
While the museum atmosphere is attracting diners and other casual visitors, the Kemp Gateway Center is still about economic development in aerospace manufacturing, said Bryce Gibby, marketing director for Kemp Development.
"The building is steeped in aviation heritage, but it's grounded in aviation future," Gibby said.
Ogden-Hinckley already serves as a relief airport for Salt Lake City International Airport, in case of high traffic or weather problems.
Officials have pondered offering regular passenger service to and from Ogden, but have so far decided such services would be impractical due to its proximity to the Salt Lake City airport, a major hub of western travel.
Still, with three runways, the longest of which is 8,100 feet, the airport is capable of handling scheduled passenger service, Airport Manager Ed Rich said.
"We can handle most planes here," he said.
Several new developments have happened at the Kemp Gateway Center, a 30-acre private business park at the 700-acre airport's south end, since officials held a groundbreaking for Adam Aircraft Industries last fall.
Adam Aircraft's new 96,000-square-foot hangar and assembly facility is nearing completion. The company expects to begin putting together its A700 AdamJet, an eight-seat business jet made of composite materials, in the new facility in mid-2008, Chief Operating Officer Craig Johnson said.
The goal is to have 400 employees producing 10 jets per month by then, Johnson said.
With 90 percent fewer parts and half the cost of comparable jets on the market today, Adam "will change the face of aviation," Gibby said.
He called successful efforts in getting Englewood, Colo.-based Adam to build its plant in Ogden "a national achievement."
Adam's lease on the new building starts in May, and the only major challenge to getting things up to speed is finding enough skilled workers to fill it, said Walt Becker, plant manager for Adam in Ogden.
Johnson said he is optimistic the jobs will be filled in a timely manner.
"The skill set we were looking for is exactly what this community has," he said.
The west side of the building is being made into 37,000 square feet of high-end office space, which has been in strong demand recently. Adam is occupying the remaining 59,000 square feet.
"It's a good location whether you fly or not," Gibby said of the new office space being built.
Reliance Aerotech Inc., a Toronto-based company that provides contract maintenance services for aircraft, has leased a small office in the center.
Reliance recently expanded its work force from 200 to about 600 with the acquisition of a Tennessee company. Whether the company plans to expand in Ogden is uncertain, but plans for another large manufacturing building west of the Adam facility could accommodate a large expansion, Gibby said.
Las Vegas-based Silver State Helicopters, a helicopter flight training company and one of the first tenants at the center, also is planning to expand its local presence.
Rickenbacker's, the upscale restaurant that occupies the top floor at the center, has been such a success that a 70-seat expansion is already under way.
The top floor also doubles as banquet and conference facilities.
Gibby said a business expo there last year drew about 2,200 people throughout the day.
New to the center is Doolittle's, a deli serving breakfast and lunch that is designed to complement Rickenbacker's, which gets most of its business from dinner patrons. Gibby said two large companies are interested in locating in new buildings yet to be built at the center, but said it's too early to name names.
There are several different master plan scenarios for the development, the most ambitious of which calls for 650,000 square feet of total building space.
The buildings already in place represent one-fourth to one-third of the total space planned, Gibby said.
Tax incentives offered to Kemp by the city to spur the project along have generated some controversy and even a lawsuit from another company at the airport against Kemp and the city.
Kemp recently settled its part in the suit by purchasing the local operations of OK3 Air and renaming it Mountain Valley Aviation.
Gibby said the perception that Kemp has received handouts and been favored over others at the airport is inaccurate. Tax increment benefits given to Kemp are used to lower lease rates to keep the center and overall airport competitive, Gibby said.
"The idea that Kemp gets a subsidy is fiction," he said. "Everything that has been accomplished has been done through the investment of Mel (Kemp). The man looked at a raw piece of dirt and saw a world-class facility."
Mel Kemp is the founder of Kemp Development and Boman Kemp Steel, a steel products manufacturer and distributor in west Ogden.
There are big plans outside the Kemp Center as well. City officials are working on issuing $22 million in industrial revenue bonds to bring Aero Ventures LLC, a manufacturer of "kit" airplanes, to a spot now occupied by the Ogden Jet Center.
Efforts by Gov. Jon Huntsman's administration and locals are turning the Top of Utah into a growing center of aerospace and composites manufacturing activity, said Dave Harmer, Ogden community and economic development director.
"We see (the Gateway Center) as being good not only for the airport, but for Ogden and the entire mountain region," Harmer said.
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