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New Aerospace Research Complex Breaks Ground

June 25, 2010 - Ceremonial shovels will hit the dirt today as state and local officials break ground on a new high-tech aerospace research complex adjacent to Kennedy Space Center.

Space Coast officials hope the center will attract technology companies to employ some of the aerospace workers bracing for layoffs when the space shuttle program is retired.
90.7’s Tom Parkinson reports.

It’s called Exploration Park and supporters hope the complex will create more than 1700  jobs. By some estimates, as many as 9000 space workers will lose their jobs as NASA’s shuttle program comes to an end early next year.

Frank DiBello is president of Space Florida, the state's aerospace economic development agency. Dibello said at least a half dozen high-tech firms are interested in the site.

“We have a number of companies that we are in dialogue with, six of which have active letters of intent and we’ll be able to make announcements of those very, very soon.”

While he said he can’t reveal the names of the companies yet, the focus of the project is high-tech.

 “These are all companies either involved in aerospace or involved with the application of space technology to other markets,” DiBello said “some cyber-security companies, spacecraft fabrication and assembly, a number of advanced technology initiatives as well as bio-tech and clean energy.”

Space Coast area labor unions are mostly optimistic about the new development. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local in Port Orange represents many Kennedy Space Center employees. Steve Williams is the local’s business director. He said the aerospace industry is one of the few sources for high wage jobs in the state.

“That’s our only industrial base in the state of Florida to maintain a decent standard of living with decent wages and benefits,” Williams said, “this is the one area we can tout as being able to do that. So yes, we’re excited about it but we do have concerns.”

Williams said unions have not yet been assured that the project will exclusively employ union labor. He said it’s important for his members and for the safety of area residents that the companies locating at the site employ a well-trained and certified technical labor force.

“If in fact, we go into privatization and commercialization of space exploration, you’re dealing with highly explosive materials and so forth on these launch complexes” Williams said, “I just hope that we don’t compromise safety of the citizens and those that work out there at the space center for that profit margin.”

Williams said federal laws require that union labor be used on government projects but Space Coast unions have not been assured that the same rules will apply for private companies or public-private partnerships.

Exploration Park is planned for a site adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center. Developers say the existing 100,000 square-foot Space Life Sciences Laboratory at KSC will be the centerpiece of the new complex.

Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas, Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp and Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana will be among the hosts for the ground breaking ceremony Friday morning at 10:00.
The first phase of the development is scheduled to open in 2012.

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