CITY PENS DEAL WITH AIRPLANE MAKER

As many as 1,000 recreational airplanes a year eventually may be manufactured in Cape Girardeau if the state comes through with loans for a young company looking to move its operation from Georgia to the local airport.

Cape Girardeau officials lured 3-year-old Renaissance Aircraft of Eastman, Ga., to the area by offering incentives including $2.1 million, issued through bonds, for facility construction, equipment, furnishings, water and sewer lines, roads and parking lots.

The company will do business from a site at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. Officials from the city, industrial recruitment boards and local corporations worked for about nine months to land an aircraft manufacturer in the city.

Now that the city and Renaissance have agreed on the terms of the incentives, both are looking to the state to provide needed loans and loan guarantees to the company.

Renaissance president John Dearden said the incentives were a main selling point in his decision to relocate to Cape Girardeau.

"We've been investigating a number of sites around the country," he said.

"Quite frankly, what brought us here was the combination of incentives provided by the state and the city. The intangible and very important element was the sort of integrated team approach that came out of the efforts of Cape and the state."

Classic design, new plane

Renaissance will manufacture an aircraft known as the Luscombe, a two-seat recreational plane certified by the Federal Aviation Administration. The design of the plane dates to the 1930s, although Renaissance has updated it.

The plane reportedly will sell for around $70,000. The city will collect $500 for every plane that is manufactured at the Cape Girardeau site. If a plane is sold from the Cape Gir-ardeau site, the $500 fee will be waived, but the city will collect sales tax on the aircraft.

Bond money provided by the city will be repaid by Renaissance over 20 years.

Renaissance anticipates creating as many as 200 local jobs once the plant is up and running.

If all state and local funding is approved, Dearden said the company hopes to begin construction in February and be in production in temporary facilities by mid spring.

The company expects to build 400 to 500 Luscombes a year within three to five years of setting up in Cape Girardeau.

"We see a bright future for this market," Dearden said. "When we come here, we'll be here for quite a number of years."