OXFORD — The departure of an airplane refurbishing company at Oxford County Regional Airport has been linked to $5 million in lost economic activity.
According to a 2006 study commissioned by the state Legislature on Maine’s rural airports, the Oxford County Regional Airport once generated $7.9 million per year in overall activity.
The tally includes and perhaps is driven by Oxford Aviation, an airplane refurbishing company, which was located at the facility for a quarter-century until it closed its doors in November 2013.
The company was estimated to generate $4.9 million between direct manufacturing and indirect multipliers stemming from its employees for whom wages and benefits were pegged at $1.4 million.
Charles Colgan, a professor of public policy and management at the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service and a former state economist, said the roughly $5 million loss sounded plausible.
“In the business of rehabbing aircraft, that’s not a lot of money at all,” Colgan said.
On site last week, Glenn Holmes, executive director of the Paris-based Western Maine Economic Development Council, said discussions with new tenants were ongoing.
“This hurts, but the blow to the area is not as sharp because the county’s manufacturing sector is diversified,” Holmes said. “Losing this one business, while unfortunate and not without pain, is not the same as a paper mill closing.”
Founded April 1, 1989, by James Horowitz of Casco, the company painted, refurbished and repaired small aircraft. It claimed, at one point, to employ 60 people.
A series of lawsuits in 2013 eventually brought the business to a halt. In September 2013, the company was sued by Community Concepts Finance Corp. for allegedly defaulting on a $62,500 loan made in 1996.
Two months later, the county sued to evict the company, claiming the company violated the terms of a new lease agreement.
Weeks later, in November 2013, an Ohio company was awarded $423,000 in a lawsuit against Oxford Aviation because the tail section of an aircraft worked on by the refurbishing company broke off in flight, requiring an emergency landing. In a companion lawsuit last March, a judge awarded one of the plane’s occupants $104,000 in compensation.
Prior to those rulings, Horowitz filed for bankruptcy and ceased new operations. After the case was dismissed in federal court, the company was evicted two months later when it failed to find a tenant to take over its lease.
Attempts to reach Horowitz for this story were unsuccessful.
Steve Levesque, executive director of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, whose work includes enticing new businesses to locate at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station, said last week that there’s no greater multiplier in the economy than manufacturing.
“Every dollar that goes into wages and purchases is a five-fold increase — the dollar spins around five times,” Levesque said.
The loss of the company comes at a time when the industry appears to be picking up steam. According to a 2014 market economic assessment released in mid-March by the Aeronautical Repair Station Association and TeamSAI Consulting, Maine’s aviation maintenance industry employs 1,052 workers, with an economic impact of $124.7 million.
Those figures reflect an upward trend from a similar report five years ago, which tallied 984 aviation maintenance workers in Maine and an impact of roughly $120 million.
Meanwhile, as county officials try to woo new suitors to move into the empty hangars, the 40,000-square-foot facility needs $300,000 to $500,000 to repair a leaking roof and burst pipes.
Colgan suggested it faces an uphill battle in that pursuit as the market is “hyper competitive,” and the long, cold winters present challenges.
“When you repair aircraft, you can fly anywhere; you can literally go anywhere to have the work done,” he said. “The large part of the industry operates south of Maine with year-round operations.”
He added, “It’s possible to do it in Maine with established ties, but takes a lot to start up new in the business.”
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