Commander Premier gears up to build airplanes at Cape airport

An airplane manufacturer plans to start building luxury airplanes at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport early next year. But the first planes likely won't roll off the assembly line until mid-year, company officials said.

Commander Premier Aircraft Corp. has started moving equipment and parts into the former Renaissance Aircraft hangar.

Company officials finalized a rental agreement with the city of Cape Girardeau on Oct. 6, clearing the way for the aviation firm -- established in the wake of a bankruptcy -- to relocate its manufacturing, sales, parts and service operations from Bethany, Okla.

But the 52,000-square-foot hangar isn't big enough. The hangar has 48,000 square feet of industrial space and another 4,000 square feet of office space.

To address its space needs, the firm also has rented 24,000 square feet of warehouse space in a building on Rust Avenue owned by Cape Girardeau businessman Gary Rust, chairman of the Southeast Missourian.

Under the lease arrangement, the company will pay $3.17 million in rent to the city for use of the hangar over the next 14 years. But the first six months will be rent free.

After that, Commander Premier will pay the city $11,000 a month, gradually escalating to just over $21,000 a month by December 2009, city finance director John Richbourg said.

Company president Joel Hartstone said the firm expects to build 15 planes in 2006 and up to 30 a year after that.

The four-seat, single-engine planes will sell for about $600,000 each.

Hartstone compared the plane to a Mercedes. "We believe it is the finest single-engine plane," he said.

The company will receive state economic development aid. Over the next five years, it will be able to keep $818,000 in state payroll taxes. The state also will provide at least $70,000 in job training.

The aviation company was created by 50 owners of Commander airplanes. They acquired the assets of the former manufacturer in June after the original company went bankrupt. The new company had to relocate because it lost its lease on the Oklahoma building where the planes previously had been built.

Cape Girardeau beat out more than 150 other cities to land the business, city officials said.

Commander Premier's Hartstone said the city's well-run airport and its central location in the United States were factors in the decision to locate here.

The city had been seeking to fill the spacious hangar since late last year when financially troubled Renaissance Aircraft abandoned plans to build airplanes in Cape Girardeau.

The city will use the rent payments from Commander Premier to retire $2.6 million in bonds used to finance construction of the hangar. Richbourg said the city expects to retire the bonds by April 2020.

At that point, the company will have the option of entering into three five-year lease renewals, he said. Commander Premier also would have the option of buying the building.

Carl Gull, vice president of operations, currently is Commander's only full-time employee in Cape Girardeau.

But the hangar itself is starting to resemble a factory. It's filled with various molds for everything from the cockpit to airplane doors. Jigs, metal frames on which different pieces of the four-seat, single-engine plane are fashioned, stand in rows on the concrete floor.

The company hopes to begin hiring workers for its airplane plant in December.

The firm initially will operate with about 10 employees. The company plans to expand to about 100 jobs within three years.