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West Whiteland, PA,
October 24, 2002
- Keystone
Helicopter plans to double its
Chester County work force to 600 when it builds
a massive new facility in Sadsbury Township.
Steve Townes, chairman and chief executive of
Keystone Ranger Holdings Inc., an aviation
venture capital group that bought Keystone Helicopter in January, made
the announcement Wednesday with Gov. Mark Schweiker and Sam McCullough
of the state Department of Community and Economic
Development.
Townes is also chairman and chief executive of
Keystone Helicopter. Keystone employees and
state government dignitaries huddled Wednesday for the announcement
inside a chilly tent at current Keystone headquarters on Phoenixville
Pike.
The state anted up $3.3 million in tax incentives,
job training and other benefits to keep
Keystone in Pennsylvania.
The company will also pony up $12 million more to
build its Heliplex, a state-of-the-art
helicopter maintenance and repair site adjacent to the Chester
County/G.O. Carlson Airport in Valley.
Keystone repairs, maintains and customizes
helicopters, as well as providing air-medical
helicopter operations for more than 25 hospitals east of the Mississippi.
It will buy the 52,000-square-foot Hoppe's
manufacturing facility and its surrounding 15
acres Nov. 26, said Jim McCaughan, Keystone Ranger chief financial
officer. That will be an all-cash transaction, through Ranger's property
holdings subsidiary.
Keystone plans to keep the Hoppe's building, adding
110,000 square feet of office and technical
space there. The shops and hangars complex could eventually
exceed 200,000 square feet on 25 acres, immediately adjacent to the
commercial airport, and well away from any residential developments.
What will happen to the West Whiteland complex, now
owned by Keystone founder and Chairman Emeritus
Peter Wright Sr., remains to be seen. Options include holding
onto the building, developing it as tenant office space, or selling it.
A member of the storied Flying Tigers air squadron
during World War II, Wright returned home to
"figure out how to commercialize that funny new machine
called the helicopter," Townes recalled. Founding Keystone was the
result.
Commented Schweiker, "Keystone Helicopter has
called Pennsylvania home for nearly 50 years
..(the company) recognizes our first-rate work force and unmatched
quality of life."
Keystone is now owned by Keystone Ranger, a venture
capital group that includes Ranger Aerospace
LLC, Meridian Venture Partners, CD Ventures, Argosy,
and other private investors.
Forward Looking Statements:
The Company from time to time may discuss forward-looking information.
Except for factual historical information, all forward looking statements
are estimates by the Company’s management and are subject to various risks
and uncertainties that are beyond the Company’s control and may cause
actual results to differ materially from management’s expectations.
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