This California aerospace leader is looking at Fort Worth for its headquarters
Fort Worth hopes to lure another California company — this time with more than 500 high-paying, white-collar jobs — to the former FAA headquarters.
Wesco Aircraft plans to relocate its headquarters from Valencia, California, to Fort Worth in two phases starting next year thanks to a $1 million incentive package the city’s economic development department pitched Tuesday. The company will bring 539 corporate jobs with an average salary of $75,000.
The relocation represents a win for the city, said Robert Sturns, economic development director, as Wesco checks many of the criteria established in the city’s long-term development strategy: A corporate relocation with high-paying office jobs in aerospace, one of the city’s targeted industries. Wesco recently merged with Pattonair and will be doing business as Incora. The combined company is a leader in supply chain and distribution within the aerospace industry and has more than 7,000 customers and 4,000 employees worldwide.
It’s also a sign Fort Worth is poised to recover strongly from the recession spurred by COVID-19.
“I think you will continue to see companies that are reassessing their operations, looking at different environments where they can locate and trying to capitalize on, you know, what options to redesign and rethink how they operate,” Sturns said. “Fort Worth is positioned very well to take advantage of some of those opportunities.”
The company will begin relocating 239 jobs to about 53,000 square feet in the former FAA headquarters at 2601 Meacham Blvd. next year. In 2022, 300 more jobs will occupy an additional 40,000 square feet. In each phase the company will commit to $4 million in investment in the building. The minimum salary is $44,000.
“Our new, larger office space in Fort Worth will allow us to bring our teams together to increase efficiency, encourage collaboration and support the future growth of our business,” Incora CEO Todd Renehan said in a statement. “This centrally located site also will offer more accessibility and availability to our customers and colleagues across the U.S. and in Europe.”
No tax dollars are used in the incentive package offered by the city.
When the city sold the Pinnacle Bank property at 250 W. Lancaster Ave., about $4.5 million was set aside in a special fund to target specific development projects. This is the first time the city has dipped into the fund to entice a company to expand or relocate, Sturns said.
The city will dole out a cash grant up to $490,000 after the first phase and a second grant of up to $510,000 in 2026, after the second phase of relocation. The total allocations will be determined by the number of new jobs earning at least $58,522.
Sturns said he anticipates $767,464 in net benefits to the city. Because the city isn’t using a tax break, it will continue to receive revenue from the building, about $1 million over 10 years.
The deal is pending a City Council vote Sept. 22
During City Council work session Tuesday, council members had little comment about the relocation, though Mayor Betsy Price called it “exciting.”
“Incora’s new location not only will bring more jobs to Fort Worth, but it also positions the company for continued success and future growth,” said Price said in a prepared statement sent through the Greater Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce.
Gov. Greg Abbott, in a statement, celebrated the relocation, saying he was proud to welcome the company to Texas.
“Texas has cultivated a strong economic climate with low taxes, reasonable regulations, and a high-caliber workforce, which allows companies like Wesco to innovate and prosper,” Abbott said in the statement. “As a thriving aviation and aerospace hub, Fort Worth is the ideal location for Wesco to continue to grow its operations and serve its customers.”
Sturns said his department has been working with Wesco for roughly a year. The company had looked at several sites around town, including downtown, before choosing the Mercantile Center location. Part of the city’s economic development plan calls for increased density and office jobs in downtown, but Sturns said Wesco wasn’t able to find a space there that fit its needs.
This is the second California company Fort Worth has wooed to locate here.
Western apparel maker Ariat International will move the company’s western distribution hub and regional headquarters to Alliance. The company will add 75 corporate jobs to an 800,000-square-foot site at state highway 156 north of the BNSF intermodal facility and ramp up to about 450 total jobs in the distribution center by 2024. The City Council approved $2 million in incentives for the project.
If approved by the council, the Wesco move helps solidify Fort Worth in the aerospace industry beyond the traditional big names of Lockheed Martin and Bell. Sturns said relocations like Wesco’s signal to other companies Fort Worth has a highly skilled work force and a strong quality of life.
“Other companies will say, ‘OK, I think I can move my operations here because Fort Worth has obviously shown it has the talent,’” he said. “I think that’s the big selling point.”
This story was originally published September 15, 2020 at 4:04 PM.
