The Huntsville City Council on Thursday approved financial incentives for two companies bringing more than 700 jobs to the Rocket City.
The city will provide funding to help with the recruitment, training and relocation of the people who will fill those jobs.
“This is one of the good news stories we like,” Urban and Economic Development Director Shane Davis said. “We do a lot of work in recruiting new corporations to Huntsville, but we love to see the ones who have been here a long time take the opportunity to expand in our city.”
That is the case with the Parsons Corporation and Performance Drones Works LLC, Davis said.
Parsons Corporation is investing $5 million in its expansion that will include the addition of 198 jobs paying a minimum annual salary of $100,559 per job.
The defense and intelligence contractor has locations on Diamond Drive and at 9700 Advanced Gateway, where the Robins and Morton Group has completed a 50,000-square-foot high-bay facility and was issued a permit on Aug. 6 to build another $1.2 million building.
Performance Drones Works – known as PDW – is investing $9.1 million in its expansion. It is cutting the ribbon next week on a 100,000-square-foot facility on Diamond Drive with the addition of 525 jobs paying a minimum annual salary of $105,580, excluding benefits.
Davis said PDW started as a small company at Stovehouse and grew to a company “bursting at the seams” with 90 employees at the location on Governors Drive.
The city will be providing Parsons Corporation with about $1,200 per job to help with recruiting and job relocation in conjunction with the state’s job training and workforce development program. The total investment for the city will be $237,000 if the company meets the requirements set in the agreement.
There is a five-year performance period. Once a job is created, it must be maintained or the city will recapture its investment, Davis said.
“These are very technical jobs,” he said. “There are some specialized skills that are needed. It’s going to take some recruitment, both locally and abroad and relocation. It’s a reimbursement. We make no payment until the jobs are put in place, and they are here. They must be working and employed in Huntsville.”
Davis said the new workforce will find homes and spend money in the community “and create a growing tax base.”
“It will have a $91 million impact on our community,” he said. “…It’s a pretty good deal for our city.”
The city will provide PDW with about $1,000 funding per job. The payments will be made in 100 job increments.
“Once they are on staff, that will start the five-year window,” Davis said. “Once the 525 job ramp up is complete, which should take about four-and-a-half years, we’ll have an additional two years on the back. This will have a little longer recapture.”
Davis described PDW’s jobs “not just engineering jobs.”
“Some of them are engineering and technician, research and development, but there are also manufacturing jobs,” he said. “They are really high paying jobs that a lot of people going through Drake (State) and Calhoun and even our new (Huntsville City Schools) tech school will be able to apply for in the next couple of years.”
“These are the type of jobs that can start now and be generational,” Mayor Tommy Battle added. “It will give us jobs for years and years to come. These kinds of companies are very much sought after. They really sought out Huntsville because they thought this was a good place to be.”
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