New Enterprise Planned at Idaho County Airport

8/10/2011
Originally in The Lewiston Tribune, 08-10-2011
Written by Kathy Hedberg

Grangeville, ID: Anderson Aeromotive, one of the world's largest repair shops for World War II-era radial engines, is planning to build a 40,000-square-foot hangar at the Idaho County Airport.

Raymond Anderson, owner of the company, said Tuesday it's hoped construction on the building will begin this fall. The hangar, which would serve customers from around the globe, would employ up to 15 people and provide a place for maintenance on customers' aircraft.

"If we put it up we're planning on not moving our operation, but adding to it," Anderson said. "We're planning on leasing the ground (from Idaho County) and then we have to figure a way to finance the hangar."

Idaho County Commissioner James Rockwell sees the business expansion as a possible turning point in the county's economy and said Idaho County could become "America's war bird workshop."

Rockwell is proposing that the Idaho County Airport and Anderson Aeromotive "develop a hard-hitting marketing program aimed at expanding services for owners of WWII-era war birds. In addition to engines, let's find a company that does struts. Together let's find a company that does paint. Aelerons. Metal work. Fuselage work. Electrical work. Upholstery. Instrumentation."

Despite a tight budget last year, commissioners invested nearly a half million dollars to upgrade the infrastructure at the airport in an attempt to encourage businesses to move there. Rockwell said the former Craig-Wyden money, which was given to the county to supplant the loss of taxes and production on federal land when the timber industry crashed, was intended to diversify the economy in that way.

Instead, the money was spent on immediate needs.

Now, the commissioners are taking a more business-development attitude and applying the money to building the economy as Congress intended, Rockwell said.

Anderson Aeromotive was established in Grangeville in 2002 after the Andersons moved from San Lorenzo, Calif. The company is a certified repair station specializing in the overhaul of Pratt and Whitney and Curtiss-Wright radial engines. It currently employs 32 people in a 55,000-square-foot workshop located on the western edge of Grangeville.

Ray Anderson has been in the business since 1975.

Some of the company's notable customers include Microsoft founder Paul Allen and Red Bull of Austria. Anderson said the company also is building engines for Lufthansa airlines of Germany, the governments of Turkey and Greece and for various commemorative air squadrons throughout the U.S.
Customers find him, he said, "because it's a small industry and it's generally word of mouth. Not many companies are doing this any more and right now we have the reputation and people come to us.

"Grangeville is the perfect place to do this kind of work," Anderson said. "It's got a good employee base, real estate is still reasonable up here and there's lots of good help out there."

News tag(s): Business Project_60 Grangeville Anderson_Aeromotive