Magellan project meeting held in Melbourne

The Melbourne International Airport Authority is all in on a mystery company that could bring thousands of high-paying jobs to the Space Coast.

Officials voted unanimously Friday to move forward with a ground lease for Project Magellan, a confidential project that promises to bring in millions of dollars to the local economy.

According to documents, the ground lease includes Project Magellan building a 216,000 square foot building on airport property.

"Building on what we have right now, with the type of technology that we have at the airport presently, and how it's going to grow, it's good for everybody. It's good for the community and we look forward to it," said Melbourne International Airport Director Richard Ennis.

Over the past several months, Ennis and his staff have worked closely with the company behind Project Magellan.

Because of confidentiality agreements, the business has remained a mystery. Officials have only said that it's a major aerospace business who wants to bring aircraft development work to airport.

"You have to work with the perspective tenant coming to the area. There's a reason why they want that confidentiality and we want to comply with them," said Ennis.

According to airport officials, Project Magellan proposes to bring in 1,800 full-time jobs with an average salary of $100,000.

They're also expected to invest half a billion dollars between now and 2020 to base their aircraft development work at Melbourne International Airport.

In addition to the new construction, the company has also proposed renovating an existing 100,000 square foot building and officials say this could be happening by 2015.


About the Author:

Justin Warmoth joined News 6 in 2013 and is now a morning news anchor.

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