Writer: Joshua Andino
2 min read June 2023 — Boeing is expanding its Jacksonville operations as construction gets underway at its new component facility at Cecil Field.
The groundbreaking ceremony was held in February, with the one-story, $39 million avionics production facility expected to produce around 175 ready-for-issue equipment pieces per year, primarily as a result of repair and refurbishment, reports the Jacksonville Business Journal. The facility is just one part of the over-$100 million Boeing expansion underway at Cecil Airport, where the company plans to create a full aircraft repair, maintenance and overhaul center.
The facility will support Boeing’s contract with the Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support division, which will have the company provide work on the Navy’s Super Hornets and Growlers aircraft, as well as Boeing’s P-8 Poseidon and C-40’s.
“There is a talent pool here that is growing. This is meant to be another center of aerospace,” Boeing Global Services CEO Ted Colbert III said last year. “We want to be here, and we want to help in that growth plan.”
Jacksonville has long been a prime location for the aviation and defense industries. The city is home to Navy Air Station Jacksonville, which is the largest installation in Navy Region Southeast, occupying over 3,800 acres along the St. Johns River’s west bank.
Upon completion, the new site is expected to provide 270,000 square feet of hangar space and an additional 100,000 square feet of office. The new facility is the latest in Boeing’s ongoing expansion in the area, which is part of a 25-year lease agreement signed with the Jacksonville Aviation Authority in 2020. Boeing has been active on the site since 1999.
Up to 400 jobs are expected to be created by the site’s completion. Those new jobs will be in place by December of 2026, accounting for $21.7 million in payroll, with an average annual salary of $65,000 excluding benefits, reported News4Jax earlier last year – upon the topping off of another hangar at the same site at the end of last year.
JAA Director of External Affairs Michael Stewart said at the time the hangar would see a ribbon cutting in October 2023. Dec. 8 the total project cost is $183.6 million and the hangar is on track for a ribbon-cutting in October 2023.
“This is truly going to be significant,” Stewart said. “When we look back in seven to 10 years, here on the east side of the main runway (at Cecil Airport) is going to be the catalyst for numerous other aerospace and defense development(s). And it all started, we think, with this project.”
The city has provided Boeing a $425,000 grant to assist with the estimated $3 million in expenditures the infrastructure and facilities expansion have entailed over the last three years.
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