The 204,000 square foot property located at 22550 Nelson Road in the Bend Airport Enterprise Zone sat vacant since Cessna left the city in 2009. Doug King, CEO of Epic Aircraft, indicated that the company will hire between 40 and 80 employees in 2013.
Epic Aircraft is a privately owned aviation company that specializes in the production of kit aircraft. In March of this year, the company announced it was acquired by Engineering LLC, a Russian owned maintenance, repair and overhaul provider. The acquisition gave Epic Aircraft the ability to attain certification and expand to a global market.
Epic’s acquisition of the vacant building allows the company to realize its goal of production beyond kit planes to build aircraft certified by the by the FAA.
Robert Raimondi, broker with Compass Commercial Real Estate Services represented AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURER’S RE, LLC, an Oregon limited liability company, (dba Epic Aircraft) in the purchase of the manufacturing facility formerly occupied by Cessna Aircraft Company in Bend.
Located on the tarmac of the Bend Municipal Airport, the facility had a long term ground lease with the City of Bend. Last week, the Bend City Council approved a land-use transfer from Cessna to Epic Aircraft allowing the latter to expand and purchase the facility.
“This is a victory for Bend’s economic development and gives Epic an opportunity to create jobs while boosting the aircraft composites industry in Central Oregon,” said Raimondi. Earlier this year, Raimondi and Gardner Williams, SIOR also with Compass Commercial represented Epic Aircraft’s purchase of its 90,000 square foot facility in the airport. “In April of 2010, Moody’s stated on economy.com that, Bend’s aircraft manufacturing industry was nearly extinct and that it had ‘dim prospects’ for recovery. Well today, we are starting to prove them wrong,” said Raimondi.
Colliers International represented Cessna in the transaction, specifically by Jerry Matson SIOR of Portland and Gregg Wassmansdorf of Toronto.
