City of Jacksonville celebrates grand opening of new Boeing facility for military repairs

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — On Friday, city, state, and Boeing leaders celebrated the grand opening of Boeing’s new repairs and operations facility at Cecil Airport. It’s the first of its kind in Jacksonville, covering 385,000 square feet and creating 300 new jobs.

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Jacksonville Aviation Authority CEO Mark Vanloh also told Action News Jax on Friday the facility will only serve to draw more aviation business and infrastructure to “The River City.”

“Wherever you see McDonald’s, you see a Burger King,” Vanloh said with a smile. “So we’re gonna start to see major suppliers to Boeing pop up, and you can see one across the street being built right now, you’ll start to see those pop up all around Cecil that want to serve Boeing and their employees.”

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Perhaps most importantly, the facility will also serve the area’s military, providing support for repairs and overhaul of military planes from the surrounding area.

Action News Jax had the chance to tour inside one of the planes the facility will be servicing ahead of Friday’s ribbon cutting.

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“They are in the North Atlantic 24 hours a day circling the globe looking for hostile activity and so they’re very important to be able to come back to Jacksonville at night, go get repairs, and get back out,” said Vanloh.

A Boeing official told Action News Jax the partnership was partially funded by $425,000 from the City of Jacksonville. Action News Jax has reached out to the city about how that number compares to earlier proposals and is still waiting to hear back.

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