Groundbreaking set for today for building at airport

The way Renaissance Aircraft president John Dearden sees it, it's better late than never.

After more than a year of toiling in red tape and litigation, the Renaissance Aircraft will break ground at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport today on a new 52,000-square-foot manufacturing facility.

The building will house up to 150 employees within a year of its completion and will include 4,000 square feet for office space.

Dearden hopes to occupy the building in July, though the interior may not be finished at that point. Even so, Dearden can't wait to get out of the four airport buildings his company is using now.

"We've been limited in space," Dearden said. "Instead of walking across the floor to a co-worker, you have to get in cars or do things by phone that are really hands-on things.

Lawsuit slows project

"So getting everything under one roof will make production more cost effective and will allow us to set up and refine our production activities," he said.

Dearden had hoped to have the building completed by the late summer or early fall of 2001.

But a lawsuit filed by the Don Luscombe Aviation History Foundation concerning the ownership of $8 million in manufacturing equipment delayed the construction of the building. Dearden also partially has blamed the city government for the delay. He said officials were late to send out proposal requests for the construction.

But the city and state were both delayed, at least in part, because of the lawsuit, airport manager Bruce Loy said. Some of the start-up financing is coming through the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

Renaissance filed a countersuit against the foundation for money lost during the delays. The company won both suits.

Renaissance began building its airplanes in two hangars at the airport and two buildings on the east side of Interstate 55.

"We're excited to finally get to the point where we're going to be ready for construction," said Loy, who helped lure Renaissance to Cape Girardeau. "We've been working on this over a year."

Last January, the city promised Renaissance it would build the $1.6 million facility upon the sale of some public facility bonds.

The building was originally going to be 60,000 square feet, but Dearden said the plans were scaled down to ensure meeting budget. More square feet could be added a later time.

Because of the limited space in the four separate buildings, Renaissance employs only 25 people.

The company builds the Luscombe 8F, a two-seat recreational plane certified by the Federal Aviation Administration. The design of the plane dates to the 1930s, although Renaissance has updated it.

Dearden hopes to build 250 to 500 planes a year once the business gets going. So far, the company has just three planes near completion. They will be finished in mid-February, Dearden said.

bmiller@semissourian.com

355-6611, extension 127