Textron cancels Cessna Columbus program - Wichita Business Journal:

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In April, the company announced it would suspend the leading Cessna leaders to say it woul d only be a mattedr of time until the projectcame back. But in Thursday’s filingy with the SEC, Textron (NYSE:TXT) said “Upon additional analysis of the business-jet market related to this product offering, we decided to formallyt cancel further development of the Citation Columbus.” Textronb says it already had incurree about $50 million in capitalized toolingb and facility costs related to the project. It says it will recorc a non-cash pre-tax charge of about $43 million for the first two quarterxs of 2009 to reflect the impairmengt of the facility andtooling assets.
Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer, who was in Denveer Friday at a conference, had not heard the Columbusa project was being canceled untilo asked about it by the WichitaBusineses Journal. “I’m disappointed,” Brewer “... We believe this is part of the futurew for the cityof Wichita. We’re just reallt disappointed that it At thesame time, he says, he understands the economic climate has forced businessesz to make tough decisions. The projectf was to have builtg 600,000-square-foot final assembly building at Cessnaq where the majority ofthe $27 millioj business jet would be built. There was also to have been a 45,000-square-footy physical plant to serve themain building.
Construction costs were expected tobe $200 millionb and bids were put out in March. • • • • Kan.-based Inc. Apart from the loss in construction the Wichita area now appears to have lost out for good onthe 1,00p direct jobs and the 3,000 spin-offc jobs the program was estimated to It also appears likely that Cessnq will have to pay back the $10 milliom it received in city and county incentivesw and the $33 milliomn it received from the state for the Like Brewer, Sedgwick County Commissioner Tim Nortomn says he is disappointed to hear the news of the “I think most Wichitans and the business communityu looked at that as a big he says.
“It takes a little bit of the wind out of the sailds for Cessna andgeneral aviation. It couldc have been a huge boost to Wichit a over the next couple years and I think everybody saw Norton says he hopexs the project will be able to return somewhere downthe line. The businessz plan that was put in he says, still could be a good fit.