Cirrus Design Corp. is giving itself room to grow with a 25-year lease on a 189,000-square-foot facility formerly used by Northwest Airlines as a maintenance base. Cirrus plans to use the space, which has been sitting empty, to develop and ultimately produce its planned personal jet.
The Duluth Economic Development Authority, which has been maintaining the facility, tentatively approved the lease in a Dec. 27, 2007, vote and gave Cirrus permission to begin moving in equipment immediately, although a final vote on the deal was scheduled for Jan. 3, according to the Duluth News Tribune.
The 25-year lease comes with the option to renew for an additional 25 years, although the Duluth Economic Development Authority retains the right to offer Cirrus alternative space if it finds a more suitable tenant for an 80,000-square-foot service hangar that is part of the lease deal. As part of the agreement, Cirrus has also promised to create 200 new jobs by 2013.
Cirrus needed to find new space for its jet development team, which has been working in a hangar leased from the Duluth Airport Authority. That lease expired Jan 1.
January 3, 2008
AOPA ePublishing staff
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