BUSINESS
ANTHONY INSWASTY
The Aviator College at the Airport Business Park currently has 500 students
and is expanding to teach 800. It is adding a framework and powerplant
technology program.
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International Airport to Treasure Coast International Airport.
At the port, a company to maintain, refit and overhaul
yachts that exceed 200 feet in length is expected to complete
lease negotiations in February. Together, the port and airport
are expected to create hundreds of jobs for skilled workers in
and around Fort Pierce.
St. Lucie County is currently opening contractor bids for its
new 32,545-square-foot hangar at the airport. Construction
is expected to be complete this year. Plans call for finding a
company to operate there, repairing, maintaining or overhauling
airliners like the narrow-body Boeing 737, or similarly
sized Airbus A320, and an Embraer 175 corporate jet at
the same time.
“Local government has placed a high priority on getting
more jobs,” Tesch says. “They’re more focused on it now.
There was nothing like the Great Recession to focus their attention
on the economy. So, our elected officials retooled their
viewpoint.”
AVIATION TRAINING
Payne explains: “We have a very nice well-equipped general
aviation airport, but general aviation is not growing. But
the MRO business is growing. So we made a strategic pivot
to a new market. There’s a shortage of aviation mechanics
everywhere, but the aviation college at the airport is expanding
to include airframe and powerplant training programs,
and the two fit exactly what we want to do.”
Michael Cohen, president of Aviator College of Aeronautical
Science & Technology at the Airport Business Park, says
the college is embarking on an expansion that will enable it to
offer airframe and powerplant training, and that in turn will
help to supply skilled workers to the new hangar facility at
the airport. “There’s a great shortage of mechanics as well as
pilots worldwide because of the baby boomer retirement,” he
says. Now serving 650 students, he expects 800 or more after
the expansion.
The school is adding 5,000 square feet to its current academic
building and constructing another 18,000 square feet
for the airframe and powerplant programs. He is also installing
a simulator for pilot training.
The port and airport are intertwined, Hudson says. If the
company selected to operate at the hangar is interested in
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