COG Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

Nearly one-third of the Piedmont Triad region’s transportation/logistics clusters of industries are located in the greater Greensboro area, and the Colonial Pipeline serves the area with a large fuel transfer/storage facility near PTIA. The region hopes to continue to build on these strengths with an initiative to create an “aerotropolis” aimed at positioning the Triad as the global logistics center of the U.S. East Coast. This will help recoup some of the jobs lost in the textile and furniture industries over the past two decades. The Triad's location, halfway between New York and Florida and Atlanta and Washington, D.C., and the fact that half of the U.S. population is within 650 miles (1,046 km.), are major advantages. FedEx and Honda Aircraft are expected to create approximately 200,000 jobs over a 16-year period. Major industrial and business parks , with fully developed infrastructure, continue to develop in and around PTIA, covering about 1,000 acres with more than 50 companies and approximately 4,000 employees. Existing office and industrial facilities located within 2½ miles of the I-40 airport exit include more than three million square feet of office, office/showroom, warehouse/distribution, light industrial and hotel space. The FedEx hub at PTIA should generate more demand for office and other tenants associated with operations that need to be close to a logistics hub. Eight tracks of developable land, either with current or future runway access are being offered, with all utilities to the sites already installed. In June 2012, PTIA developed plans for $350 million in projects including building a taxiway over a future interstate, buying more land, moving roads, relocating a radar tower and grading large tracts of land. The work will open approximately 900 acres for aviation-related development. The projects will be partially funded by the airport with existing revenues, but additional funding will be needed from federal, state and local assistance with participation from both the public and the private sector. A $34 million taxiway features a 214-foot wide bridge over future Interstate 73 (I-73). This portion of the program was completed during the summer of 2017 for both I-73 and the taxiway bridge. The project connects the airport to hundreds of acres within a mile of the runway and will help attract large aviation tenants. This developed area is anticipated to produce nearly 18,500 jobs, $3.2 billion in economic impact and more than $113 million annually in state and local tax revenue. The number of people flying from PTIA has continued to grow - up 10 percent from 2017 to 2018. For the calendar year ending on December 31, 2017, approximately 55 scheduled daily departures carried 879,198 enplaned passengers. The aviation industry is one of the critical business sectors of the Triad’s economic development strategy. With the ongoing collaboration of the public and private sector organizations and the educational community, the Triad is poised for strong future growth in aeronautics. Local aviation-related businesses draw heavily from the aviation workforce training program at Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC) whose program has grown steadily in recent years. In 2014, GTCC completed a $10 million facility on a 23-acre campus at PTIA called Aviation III, to house its aviation management and pilot programs as well as customized industry training. The addition of the new facility allows GTCC to expand training to approximately 900 students each semester. GTCC’s aviation program is one of the largest in North Carolina and serves as a model for other community colleges. The college recently added a fifth degree program to GTCC’s aviation training, aerostructures manufacturing and repair, that will prepare students for specialization in an industrial and advanced manufacturing setting. PTIA is also the corporate headquarters of HAECO Americas , formerly known as TIMCO Aviation Services. HAECO provides aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul services, and acquired TIMCO Aviation services for $388 million in 2014. The company has 1,600 employees at PTIA and additional employees at its interiors manufacturing facility in neighboring Davidson County. It services both wide-body and small body aircraft and is able to provide both high-end interiors for luxury airliners as well as more modest coach configurations. In addition to the four existing hangars in operation, HAECO completed a new $60 million, 250,000 square- foot hanger at PTIA in 2018. The new hanger could create up to 500 jobs when fully occupied. The City has offered an economic incentive grant of $400,000 to be paid out over five years if certain jobs are created Honda Aircraft Company, a division of Honda Motor Company, has invested $140 million to establish its world headquarters at the 130-acre campus at PTIA in Greensboro. With manufacturing, testing, training, maintenance V