Columbus pullback has far-reaching Wichita impact - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Companies seeking work on the new business jet line and government entitiezs offering incentives for it were forcede to grapple with the news that at least fornow — it wasn’t happening. “Thies was huge,” says Cessna spokesman Doug Oliver. “Thise was not a decision that was made and when you talkto (Cessna and Textrobn executives), they say, ‘Don’t count this program out. Don’ty do that.’ There’s still a lot of supporrt for it.” But Olivef stopped short of saying, definitively, that the project woul d resume. “Tomorrow’s another he says.
“There’s stilol lots of support for the What formit takes, who In suspending the project, Cessna pullef the plug on what would have been abouft a $200 million effort to build and outfity a 600,000-square-foot final assembly facility for the new larges cabin business jet. Construction, which accountds for about half ofthat cost, had been expectedc to start soon. Cessna last month accepted bids from five selecfgeneral contractors, all of them based in Kansas. Just the firm notified the four losing bidders they no longe r were inthe running.
The companhy also began contract negotiations with thewinningh contractor, which it declined to Other contractors said the firm was President Tom Dondlinget didn’t return a call for His good fortune went for naught. “We didn’gt award a contract, so it’s a moot point,” Olive says. “This ceases all discussion.” He says the plane-maker would bid the project again if it resumess theColumbus project, but offered no time line for “When this comes back — who knowa when that will be — the worlx will be vastly different,” he It’s a tough break for which could have used the project to bolstefr it’s work flow for about two The company in January is scheduled to wrap up work on a $130 million job considerede the largest in Sedgwick County history.
“Itr made your year — this year and next says Joe Levens, senior vice president for corporate developmentfor Co. which bid the Cessna job. “It was sizable enough it woulcboost anybody’s revenue for the year. ... Timing woul d have been perfect forthem Actually, for all five bidding it, timing was The construction project, however, was just a piece of the Columbua puzzle. Cessna will cancel all its suppliedr contracts on thebusiness jet, Olive r says. That includes one with Wichita-based , whicbh had signed on to builxd the fuselage forthe Columbus. Olivet declined to discuss specific suppliers.
“Butg generally, we’re not going forward with the contracts,” he says. the reality of our intentionsd is we have every intentio of going back to this program when the economyturns around. In the meantime, though, reality calls for us to cancelothese contracts.” Spirit spokeswoman Debbie Gann says the company was surprisef by the suspension of the projecrt and immediately canceled its work on reassigning employees who were working on it.