A maker of flight simulators considers moving from Clearwater and growing.
By JAMES THORNER
Published September 25, 2003
With a promise of 225 new high-tech jobs, a flight simulator manufacturer has targeted Pasco County for its new plant.
Opinicus Corp., whose products include simulators for DC-9 jets, has outgrown its two buildings in Clearwater, company vice president Jennifer Frame said Wednesday.
The company employs 30, but its five-year expansion plan includes hiring another 225. Jobs, including those of executives, would pay an average of nearly $50,000.
Frame stressed that the decision to move to Pasco isn't final. "It's a pretty touchy point for us because we're in negotiations for sites," she said.
The company has qualified for $1.13-million in tax refunds through the state's Qualified Target Industry program. That amounts to $5,000 for each of the 225 new jobs.
Officials with Enterprise Florida, the business-recruitment arm of state government, toured a possible plant site Tuesday, said Sandi Snow of the Pasco Economic Development Council.
Snow refused to reveal Opinicus' name, saying early disclosure could spoil the deal. She said the unnamed company's choice of Pasco depends on its receiving another incentive, a state grant to build turn lanes into the property it selects.
Opinicus, like another flight simulation company that moved to Pasco last year (Aeronautical Systems Engineering Inc.), was founded by former employees of a company since renamed CAE.
Most of Opinicus' customers are commercial airlines. Two years ago, it announced a deal to build DC-9 simulators for Airborne Express.
The recent surge in defense spending promises to feed the company's bottom line, Frame said, but the slump in commercial aviation threatens to drag Opinicus the other way.
"It's kind of a double-edged sword," Frame said. "Ninety percent of our business is commercial airlines."
If Opinicus comes to Pasco, it plans to clear out of Clearwater. The company is housed in two 5,000-square-foot buildings off U.S. 19 near Westfield Shoppingtown Countryside.
Two other companies - one already in the county, the other coming soon - also qualified for tax breaks.
Company D/GPS, a printing company that plans to hire 30 people at the Odessa Industrial Center off Gunn Highway, won approval for $120,000 in tax refunds. The company will pay employees an average of $35,225.
Talk America, whose west Pasco call center could employ up to 500, qualified for up to $1.5-million for jobs averaging salaries of $27,000.
