VERO BEACH — Normal business operations have resumed at Piper Aircraft Inc. and while the company said it will not seek more incentive money from the county, the status of the state’s next installment from the $32 million incentive package remains unknown.

An operator answering calls at Piper’s headquarters said the facility reopened Monday. Piper executives declined to comment but an internal Piper memo distributed in November said employees were scheduled to return to work this week. In past years, Piper had implemented a one- to two-week plant shutdown. The recent shutdown was longer than normal.

Despite the shutdown, Piper sent notification by Dec. 31 to Gov. Charlie Crist’s Office of Trade Tourism and Economic Development and Indian River County officials stating it had met performance measures to receive more installments of the $32 million incentive package. Indian River County put up $12 million in incentives and the state gave another $20 million to keep Piper in Vero Beach.

“We have received communication from them that 152 jobs were created,” said Michelle Dennard, an attorney for state.

To be eligible for more incentive money Piper must have commited to $10.6 million for equipment and facilities improvements and adding 152 new full-time jobs, growing the local workforce to 1,166.

That would mean Piper has met employment targets and started capital projects despite a reduced work week and eliminating an undisclosed number of positions late last year.

Dennard said after meeting those performance measures, Piper would be eligible for two more incentive package payments from the state. However, Dennard would not comment on when the next installments would be made or on the amounts.

Piper has not announced the company’s decision on whether it will seek the state’s money.

“There’s some kind of formula that they’re using to calculate jobs,” said County Administrator Joe Baird. He did not comment further.

Piper declined to comment on staffing and how jobs are being calculated.

The company received its first payment of $4 million from Indian River County and almost $6.7 million from the state after internal audits conducted by the county and state documented Piper met its requirements for the money — including having an employment level of at least 1,014 full-time jobs.

On Dec. 24, Piper announced it would forgo the next $4 million from the county and would seek it later in the year.

According to the contract, the company could have to repay one-seventh of the money it received plus interest if employment drops below a certain level. The company, however, can temporarily avoid that penalty by asking for a one- or two-year extension.

By Nadia Vanderhoof, TCPalm.com

Tags: Aircraft, Crist, development, extension, Piper, tourism

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 10:35 am and is filed under Economy, State, Vero Beach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.