Albers Aerospace announces Amarillo expansion

Albers Aerospace announced its decision to bring its new facility to Amarillo at a Wednesday morning news conference in downtown Amarillo.

The Amarillo Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) had worked with the city council to approve incentives last year to lure the defense contractor to the area. Included in the incentives was an agreement to give Albers Aerospace 30 acres of land near the airport with two hangars with runway access to be built.

Also included in the agreement was the AEDC providing $4 million for creating local jobs within 30 days of choosing Amarillo and another $4 million after the deal is honored for its site. About 400 new high-paying jobs will be created with this new facility. Albers Aerospace will expand its recently acquired Garrett Container Systems from Accident, Maryland to the Amarillo area.

John Albers, Chief Executive Officer of Albers Aerospace, spoke about accepting the incentive package and what this brings to the area.

“This morning, we are excited to announce our formal acceptance of the incentive package to move the innovative technologies business unit to Amarillo,” Albers said. “My goal is to bring over 400 jobs to the city, with most of it being homegrown and being trained by local universities.”

Albers said much of the push to bring his business to Amarillo started about 18 months ago when he spoke with local businessman Jerry Hodge. With the area workforce being highly involved with other defense contractors, Albers thought it would be well suited for what his company brings. The company’s working relationship with Bell Helicopter and the airport space was also cited as strong factor in choosing the city.

According to Albers, the airport project will take about 18-24 months of its build time. Albers said that he hopes to break ground by the fall of this year. He said he also hopes to acquire other buildings solely for its manufacturing facility, which will employ most of its workers. The company has three different business units: manufacturing, innovative technologies engineering and aviation services.

The company has agreements in place with West Texas A&M and Texas Tech to expand its curriculum choices that would prepare its students for its workforce.

“I think it’s important to the Panhandle and country to provide strong support to the defense industry in our current environment,” Albers added.

Kevin Carter, president and CEO of the AEDC, spoke about the impact on Amarillo by bringing another well-paying employer to the area.

“We are really excited about the prospect of what Albers will do for the region,” Carter said. “The economic impact from this project will be well over $100 million per year. This will have a tremendous amount of impact on the community."

Carter said that the Albers Aerospace acquisition came about in its pursuit of another project which ultimately opted not to come to Amarillo. He said the consultant for the other company was highly impressed by Amarillo’s efforts and worked to help bring Albers to the city. Carter also emphasized that this agreement would help to train and retain talent to the region with its agreements with local universities.

Over the past few years, the AEDC has been paramount to helping to bring new businesses to the area with agreements with Caviness, Cacique, Amazon, Producer Owned Beef, and many others. Carter said the diversification of these industries is significant for the city's long-term success. He thinks the city's location and people have been a selling point for bringing these businesses here.

“We are really excited about the fact that Albers is partnering with West Texas A&M and Texas Tech,” Carter said. “We have been extremely fortunate; we, as a city, have a great product to sell. Amarillo is a wonderful place to live that is a growing community. We will obviously have to attract more workforce to the area to fill these positions and these agreements will help to create that workforce.”

Newly elected Mayor Cole Stanley said it felt great that one of his first press conferences was to announce the finalization of this economic agreement that will bring so many good jobs to the city.

“This is so important to the Texas Panhandle because this will grow our entire area in this industry and in this type of aerospace and technology with these defense contracts,” Stanley said. “What they do is bring a key component that lets other industries build upon that. This is foundational.”

Stanley praised the AEDC and the previous city council for their work in bringing business to the area to stimulate the local economy for future generations.

“It is quite surreal to get a good win like this on something that has been in the works for over a year,” Stanley added.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: The Amarillo AEDC reaches an agreement with Albers Aerospace