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[{“id”:12615,”author”:”Bob Francis”,”source”:”Fort Worth Report”,”date”:”2024-12-17″,”image”:{“thumbnail”:”3c82dd74-223b-4823-8032-536e3adfbf5a.jpg”,”original”:”0476ac4e-2855-4ccf-b0f3-7119a38a15c1.jpg”,”optimized”:”ce2a452d-10ab-4a45-be9e-cc2474d7437c.jpg”},”featured”:true,”title”:”Bell invests $632M in Fort Worth aviation manufacturing, job creation”},[{“id”:12615,”author”:”Bob Francis”,”source”:”Fort Worth Report”,”date”:”2024-12-17″,”image”:{“thumbnail”:”3c82dd74-223b-4823-8032-536e3adfbf5a.jpg”,”original”:”0476ac4e-2855-4ccf-b0f3-7119a38a15c1.jpg”,”optimized”:”ce2a452d-10ab-4a45-be9e-cc2474d7437c.jpg”},”details”:[{“language”:”English – US”,”languageCode”:”en-US”,”title”:”Bell invests $632M in Fort Worth aviation manufacturing, job creation”,”article”:”

Bell Textron Inc. is ready to take off in north Fort Worth with an investment of $632 million in a new factory for a next-generation aircraft. <\/p>\n

Gov. Greg Abbott, Mayor Mattie Parker, Bell CEO Lisa Atherton and other area leaders joined together on Dec. 17 at the Bell Manufacturing Technology Center in north Fort Worth to announce final plans to open a new manufacturing plant in the Alliance area to build the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft, or FLRAA.<\/p>\n

“This project is obviously transformational for Tarrant County … as well as in Denton County,” said Abbott. “But also it’s transformative for the future of the state of Texas, our workforce, but maybe most importantly, it’s transformative for our United States military.” <\/p>\n

The project is expected to create 520 full-time jobs with an average annual salary of $85,000 by the end of 2039. Bell won the FLRAA contract in 2022. At the time, military officials said the contract was worth $1.3 billion but could end up being worth in the range of $70 billion over the long term. <\/p>\n

“It’s kind of a big deal when you have an opportunity of that size come around,” Atherton said. <\/p>\n

The future facility will be located in a 448,000-square-foot site at 15100 N. Beach St., in AllianceTexas. In an application for state incentives filed in February, Bell said it planned to expand the building by 5,400 square feet. <\/p>\n

The Fort Worth City Council approved over $47 million in incentives on Dec. 10. Bell applied for tax breaks through the state via the Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation Act program, or JETI, the program that replaced a previous state incentive program. <\/p>\n

The Bell announcement was the first use of the new JETI program. <\/p>\n

Parker said the announcement is key to the city’s future as a leader in aerospace manufacturing and defense. <\/p>\n

“We need to continue to strive to do this,” she said. “It takes programs like this to continue to push forward.” <\/p>\n

The Bell plan also had to be approved by Denton County Commissioners Court and the Northwest Independent School District. Representatives from both parties were also on hand for the announcement. <\/p>\n

“This is monumental for us,” said Steve Montgomery, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. “Just think of the employment and the long-term investment this represents for generations to come. Monumental is probably the only word that fits.” <\/p>\n

Before the Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport<\/a> opened in 1989, Tarrant County was experiencing job loss at a rate higher than the rest of the country, said Bill Burton, executive vice president of marketing and development.<\/p>\n

The county netted just over 750 jobs in 1989, while Collin, Dallas and Denton counties added thousands, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Two years before that, the county lost nearly 9,000 jobs in 1987.<\/p>\n

The airport, then called the Fort Worth Alliance Airport, was the first component to open as part of AllianceTexas, which is celebrating 35 years of operation in December. In that time, the development is estimated to have created more than 66,000 jobs and left a $119.8 billion economic impact on the region, according to an AllianceTexas economic impact report released in 2024. The airport laid the foundation for the rest of the 27,000-acre mixed-use development, Burton said.<\/p>\n

“Without the airport, we wouldn’t have had the rest of it,” Burton said. “It brought the infrastructure, it brought the investment, it brought the focus to the area that has now yielded in excess of $3.5 billion of property taxes.”<\/p>\n

Perot Field is an industrial airport, meaning it only sees cargo flights and occasional charter flights. Several corporations, including Amazon, FedEx, Gulfstream and Tarrant County College, have opened locations at Perot Field. Alliance Aviation President Christian Childs said he believes the airport offers an environment that attracts those types of “heavy hitters.” Perot Field is ranked within the top 20 airports across the U.S. for the highest amount of cargo seen each year, Childs said.<\/p>\n

Officials from Hillwood and AVX Aircraft held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 29 for AVX’s new 21,000-square-foot headquarters at the airport. AVX Aircraft specializes in testing unmanned aircraft systems for military and commercial purposes.<\/p>\n

During the ceremony, AVX President and Chief Operating Officer Kendall Goodman said the new facility gives the company space to continue developing, designing and testing vertical lift technology. Attracting AVX to the airport plays into AllianceTexas’ Mobility Innovation Zone<\/a>, Burton said. The zone refers to a supply chain ecosystem made up of different components, including the airport, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway intermodal hub and the AllianceTexas Flight Test Center. The zone aims to connect innovative mobility companies with resources and partnerships to commercialize new technologies related to transit.<\/p>\n

“I love attracting [AVX Aircraft] up here because that tends to bring new energy, new focus and cavities that will continue to build on itself,” Burton said.<\/p>\n

The airport opened under a public-private partnership between the Hillwood development company, the city of Fort Worth and the Federal Aviation Administration. The AllianceTexas development has since grown to impact Roanoke, Westlake, Northlake, Denton County, Keller ISD and other entities.<\/p>\n

In addition to the 66,198 jobs AllianceTexas is projected to have created, more than 162,000 indirect jobs are estimated to have come from the development as well, according to the economic impact report.<\/p>\n

Job creation can indicate location and project sustainability, said Jann Miles, a planner for Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County. In the case of AllianceTexas, Miles said she believes it’s attractive for its ability to move goods anywhere within the North American continent. AllianceTexas has also had a direct impact on the communities it’s located in. The overall development is estimated to have contributed more than $3.8 billion in property taxes to multiple cities, school districts and counties since 1990, according to the economic impact report.<\/p>\n

The development was estimated to have a $9.84 billion economic impact on the region in 2023 alone.<\/p>\n