Member

Joined: 11 Oct 2006
Posts: 248
Location: Lexington ky

is it full yet i know they have brought in some tenants for it

Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

No, I think it's still about half leased or a little less. Maybe Indy or stlglph knows more...

Member

Joined: 11 Oct 2006
Posts: 248
Location: Lexington ky

i think its sad one of the finest maitnence facilties in the world is that empty

Member

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 333
Location: St. Louis, MO

Yeah, there's a few things that went awry. Basically United built this wonderful maitenance base, and then it became too expensive for them. Short end of the stick in explaination of course. These two articles basically sum it up best.


what happened -

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/...BU158311.DTL&type=business

aftermath -

http://www.sh-e.com/news_feat_05.06.04.htm

continuing -

http://www.indygov.org/eGov/Mayor/PR/2004/6/20040617b.htm


I'm surprised that Fedex never really jumped on it...not so much for package operations, but for maitenance. Their planes need servicing, too, and it could take the strains off of Memphis.

Member

Joined: 11 Oct 2006
Posts: 248
Location: Lexington ky

that makes perfect sense

Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

stlgph wrote:

Basically United built this wonderful maitenance base...

You could argue that the city and the state built the wonderful maintenance base. It was a gamble that never really paid off.

Member

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 333
Location: St. Louis, MO

Possibly. Would be interesting to see how the language was written and how much went of the project was zoned into a Tax Increment Finance District.

Despite the fact that it was first thought "up of" in the early 1950's, it really started taking off and became the "tool of development" during the 1990's, with many of the states passing legislation enabling TIF in the late 1990's and early 2000's. If this is the case, the base could be one of the largest developments of a TIF district and one of the first major TIF districts in the state of Indiana. That would be an interesting side research project if someone was really interested.

Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

I'll look it up, but I don't believe a TIF was used for the maintenance hub at all. It was a straight tax abatement package. UA was given the land at the airport, was offered something on the order of $20 million I think in property tax and other tax deferrals, and was given a bunch of money and tax credits for training the workforce. It was all in exchange for creating XXX thousand jobs by XXX year, which never materialized. I do recall that the state and city were threatening a claim against UA that, by contract, UA had to pay the abatements back since the jobs goals weren't met on time. Before the officials grew the balls to stick it to UA, the company filed for BK and the state ended up with bupkus.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Boofer what you said is correct.

Member

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 333
Location: St. Louis, MO

Tax credits? Oy vey, ye local politicians, considering that....

a) United isn't headquartered in Indiana

b) United doesn't have a large income dependable operation in Indiana


I can see that a TIF district wouldn't have been voted upon because I can see the airport authority having a shitfit that revenue from United flights would have been redirected from their budget and thus public officials would have had to to come up with a replacement method for the budget short fall because of this, the answer being raising fees for the other airlines and then having them balk because they would be able to tout that their fees are going to pay for United's hangar...etc...etc...etc.

Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

In hindsight, it was a gamble that didn't pay off. But for every similar gamble that didn't pay off, there's one that did.

Union Station flopped; Circle Center was a big success.

The RCA Dome and Pan Am Games were successes that led to the foundation of the sports economy here in Indy. Individual events like the World Basketball Championships were not so successful.

Conseco Fieldhouse is arguably a success; Market Square redevelopment (the developers have been given their 4th extension on the project) has to now been unsuccessful.

I don't think a TIF would have worked at the airport, because a TIF relies on property taxes from future adjacent development to fund the incentives. That's why you'll see a TIF granted for something like the new Honda plant, because there's a reasonable expectation that other companies will build facilities in the adjacent TIF district as a result of Honda coming there. There was no such expectation for the UA facility; only that it would create jobs for the region.

The maintenance facility was a big competition, too. There were cities all over the country vying for that thing, because of the size of the investment and the number of jobs it would supposedly create. I believe the two finalists were IND and IAD. All the industry experts said it would go to IAD because they had more available land and it was already a UA hub. What they failed to consider was the more central location at IND for UA jets from all over the place, and the larger pool of skilled workers here (lots of laid-off auto-industry workers who had the basic skill set and experience to become trained aircraft mechanics). It was a real gem for the city and state - a big prize in a very public economic-development contest among several states.

Member

Joined: 21 Jun 2005
Posts: 28
Location: Indianapolis

No question this is one of the finest maintenance facilities in the world. http://www.sh-e.com/services_remarketing_indi.htm has amazing photos and detailed specifications of this remarkable structure. It is highly regrettable that it is less than half utilized at present, and that for the facility to be marketable it had to be subdived. The one idea that was feasible and that I really loved was for FedEx to move maintenance operations there. Currently, I belive AAR has three hangers and ATA has one hanger, moving its operations from its former facility. I still belive that the IMC is a valuable asset to IND and still can attract additional operations as airlines continue to outsource their maintenance operations to reduce costs (i.e., Northwest). Additionally, the IMC is proving its value in unexpected ways as well. The IMC's independent power plant is suppling utilities (HACV, chilled water, electrical) to the Midfield Terminal. The utilities corridor constructed by a tunnel boring machine that goes under two taxiways and a runway was just completed. This was brilliant and cost effective way to utilize the IMC, keeping it viable, and serve the increased energy needs of the new terminal.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

I notice the two jetways were removed from the building. I wonder why they would have even messed with that. So is FX going to move to that building? What about the rumors that are starting to surface on airliners.net that AirTran is looking at a maintenance center here?

Member

Joined: 21 Jun 2005
Posts: 28
Location: Indianapolis

WellPoint will receive more than $10 million in incentives to create 1,200 new jobs and take over space in the former United maintenance facility at Indianapolis International Airport. That space would house about 900 workers as part of WellPoint's expanding PrecisionRx Specialty Solutions operations, which distributes specialty drugs. Those jobs, to be added over five years, would pay annual salaries between $30,000 and $100,000, averaging about $22 an hour, according to company and state officials. The airport authority met in an emergency session this morning and voted 6-0 to approve a 10-year, tax-exempt lease with WellPoint for 111,000 square feet of space.

The square feet WellPoint will lease cost the airport authority $750,000 a year to maintain. Today 13 companies share the 1.7 million-square-foot building. AAR Aircraft Services was the first company to lease two bays to do aircraft line maintenance. Currently 745 people work for AAR there. Four months later Indianapolis Diversified Machining took up residence with 72 employees. And another five months later, commuter airline Chautauqua created 245 jobs there. All told, 1,169 people work for the companies located there. With anticipated growth and WellPoint's 900 new jobs, Peterson expects employment to surpass United's peak total.
-The Indianapolis Star http://www.indystar.com/apps/p....dll/article?AID=2006612050336