Embraer
A rendering of Embraer's planned MRO facility at Perot Field Alliance Airport in Fort Worth.
Embraer’s new maintenance, repair, and overhaul facility in Fort Worth was recognized by Business Facilities as a 2024 Impact Award winner for Advanced Manufacturing.
Fort Worth has now won an Impact Award in consecutive years. In 2023, it was recognized for a new Siemens manufacturing facility.
The publication’s Deal of the Year awards highlight corporate relocation and expansion projects that are making or are projected to make a significant impact on their local communities. Economic development organizations submitted entries for projects announced or initiated between September 2023 and 2024.
“Our 2024 Deal of the Year winners represent billions of dollars in capital investment and thousands of jobs for the communities in which these companies and their suppliers will operate,” said Anne Cosgrove, Business Facilities editorial director, in a statement. “We congratulate the economic development teams that worked to bring these projects to fruition.”
In October, Embraer — a multinational aerospace corporation and the third largest producer of civil aircraft worldwide — announced that it planned to build a new MRO facility that would increase the company’s capacity to serve its growing U.S. market of E-Jet customers by 53%.
Embraer has committed to a capital investment of $57 million, including $42 million in real property improvements and $15 million in business personal property. The project is expected to generate more than $1.2 million in gross net new taxes for the city of Fort Worth and create 250 full-time jobs by late 2029, according to the city.
“This recognition in Business Facilities is more proof that the Fort Worth economy continues to build momentum,” said Robert Allen, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership. “At the Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership, we worked closely with Embraer’s team to make this happen. We believed that Fort Worth’s robust aerospace and defense sector was the perfect place for Embraer. We are happy they agreed to make the move. And we are excited to see the lasting impact this will have on the industry and Fort Worth’s continued growth.”
Embraer’s new facilities will be located at a 16-acre greenfield site in north Fort Worth’s AllianceTexas corridor, the 27,000-acre master-planned, mixed-use development by Hillwood. AllianceTexas has become one of North Texas’ most formidable economic engines, having generated an estimated $119.8 billion in regional economic impact over the past 35 years.
Embraer expects to begin operations in 2025 within an existing hanger near Alliance Airport, while Hillwood constructs a second state-of-the-art hanger nearby, which should be complete by 2027.
Fort Worth is one of North America’s leading aerospace and defense hubs, and is home to more than 600 aerospace and defense companies, including heavyweights such as Lockheed Martin and Bell. The six-county Fort Worth region also employs more than 23,500 individuals in the sector.
Fort Worth’s momentum in the aerospace industry includes the expansion of GE On Wing Support Inc. and AVX Aircraft Company’s new headquarters at AllianceTexas, along with Embraer. These projects collectively represent more than $120 million in capital investment and will bring over 350 jobs to Fort Worth.