Lemex scheduled to begin operations this month.

• Author: SITTER, KEN
• Position: Brief Article

Numerous possibilities to expand and develop the aerospace industry in the city exist

Vie Fedeli has been working for five years to put himself out of a job and this year he expects to succeed in doing so.

Fedeli and the Air Base Property Corp (ABPC), after a recent deal with Lemex Aviation of Montreal, are left with one vacant hangar and enough serviced property at North Bay Aerospace Centre to build another to sell.

The ABPC chairman is confident they will be able to announce a tentative deal for what remains by March.

"We will be out of land, out of money and in a position to dissolve," Fedeli says. But that may not be the end of new aerospace industries coming to North Bay.

"There are expansion possibilities," Fedeli explains. When the city took ownership of Jack Garland Airport from Transport Canada, it also acquired 1,700 acres of unserviced air side land.

"While it requires servicing, it's an absolutely fantastic opportunity for growth. We certainly hope that the city will continue to develop the aerospace industry."

Meanwhile, the focus is on Lemex, a custom and made-to-measure aerospace parts manufacturer, that is setting up shop in a former military hangar for a mid-January start up, and on selling the remaining leftovers from Canadian Forces Base North Bay.

"We feel it is in the best interests of the site" if the remaining space is sold to complementary businesses, Fedeli says. Ideally, "we would like to see someone who would manufacture their own aircraft."

Fedeli is mum on potential buyers, but Lemex, which is hiring about 40 workers, mainly machinists, is already considering expansion.

They may "double the size of the facility and their staff within the next 12 months," according to Fedeli. "Their long-term goal is to build a general aviation or trainer aircraft."

Not bad for a company whose initial deal with ABPC two years ago was a victim of a dispute between the corporation and the federal government over the condition of the hangars and the money promised to help them, he adds.

Instead of the $15 million promised, Fedeli states, "we received $4.75 million and we had to push them into court to receive another $2.6 million."

"As a punitive action the federal government placed a legal caution on the property" preventing...