Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout with new information.

A University of Texas at El Paso-led coalition won a $40 million federal grant to grow aerospace and defense manufacturing capabilities in the area, federal officials announced Friday.

The West Texas Aerospace and Defense Manufacturing Coalition proposal was one of 21 winners of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Build Back Better Regional Challenge, which is providing $1 billion in grants to various organizations with winning economic development proposals.

The UTEP-led coalition is the only Texas winner. It competed against 529 grant applicants across the nation for the award.

Besides UTEP, the coalition includes the city of El Paso, El Paso County, Workforce Solutions Borderplex, the El Paso Chamber, and the Rio Grande Council of Governments.

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego, the UTEP professor who led the grant application process, and other leaders celebrated the award at a Friday morning news conference.

They said the money will help this area develop a manufacturing sector that can transform the local economy and help keep UTEP students from leaving El Paso for better jobs.

"This will fund a hub for manufacturers, and we have plenty of amazing, talented, committed manufacturers" to make the plan work, Escobar said.

U.S. Department of Commerce officials in statements issued Friday lauded the UTEP-led coalition's proposal.

The coalition "will strengthen a critical technology sector that will create many jobs and ensure U.S. global competitiveness for years to come," U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement.

The award is smaller than the $65 million grant a federal official said Thursday that the UTEP-led initiative was to receive.

Escobar, who took part in Thursday's virtual media briefing during which the larger grant award was announced by Alejandra Castillo, assistant secretary of commerce for economic development, said it was a mistake that no one caught during the briefing.

"That was an error," Escobar said after Friday's news conference. "It was always $40 million."

Officials with the Commerce Department and its Economic Development Administration, which Castillo heads, did not immediately respond to requests for comments about the award amount.

The coalition's goal is to help 300 small- and medium-sized manufacturers in the area become part of the aerospace and defense industry supply chain, and create 17,000 engineering, technology and technical jobs in El Paso County and five other West Texas counties by 2030, according to its proposal.

The coalition will use $25 million from the grant to create the Advanced Manufacturing District on a 250-acre industrial park site on El Paso International Airport land, city officials said. Airport and city leaders for years have unsuccessfully tried to develop an industrial park on the land.

Plans call for ground to be broken on an initial 200,000-square-foot industrial building late this year, said Ahsan Choudhuri, associate vice president and director of the UTEP Aerospace Center. He's the leader of the coalition's grant application. El Paso City Manager Tommy Gonzalez said he's not yet certain that deadline will be met.

The grant also provides $15 million to UTEP to create the Aerospace and Defense Innovation Network for Manufacturers to support small- to medium-sized manufacturers and advanced-manufacturing startups in West Texas, officials said.

The coalition's proposal also calls for developing the West Texas Advanced Technology Corridor, to include existing UTEP-tied aerospace facilities in Horizon City, Fabens and Tornillo in eastern El Paso County.

The grant comes days after UTEP officials broke ground for construction of the school's $80 million Advanced Manufacturing and Aerospace Center on its campus.

Choudhuri said prior to Friday's news conference that UTEP has spent the past 20 years building an aerospace and defense education system that's put hundreds of graduates in jobs outside El Paso.

"El Paso has the talent, infrastructure and resolve to make it (the proposal) happen," he said.

This area has more than 300 manufacturers that can be retooled, reskilled and put into the aerospace and defense industry, he said.

"We want to make sure every kid growing up in El Paso can stay here and make wages, a lot more than living wages," Choudhuri said at the news conference. "We want to make sure we get a fair share of American wealth and American prosperity. A very simple ask. And this grant started the journey."

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Vic Kolenc may be reached at 546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: UTEP-led group wins $40M grant to aid aerospace, defense manufacturing