The Huntsville Regional Economic Growth Initiative (HREGI ...

aerospace, defense and cyber products. It will
be a high-tech design, development and prototyping
facility, incorporating the latest resources
available to produce quality products rapidly
and affordably for both commercial and government
customers. The new facility will provide
space for the company’s hardware integration;
specialty item production; space systems work
(including satellite integration); and specialized
systems, subsystems and tools development.
The announcement was met with great fanfare
among the many partners and team members
that would normally be involved in a project
of this magnitude.
“The development of this facility will take
our capability to design, develop and produce
complex hardware systems and equipment to
a whole new level. It has been specifically tailored
to address some of the most challenging
aerospace and defense problems our nation
faces today,” Bendickson said.
United States Sen. Richard Shelby praised
the company for its high standards and for
what it does and will be doing to enhance the
nation’s security capabilities.
“This facility will be an outstanding asset for
our national security capabilities, the continuation
of U.S. supremacy in space and the North
Alabama community,” Shelby said.
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, a key partner in
area economic development projects, said the
news was good for all of Alabama.
“It’s always great to welcome new jobs to
Alabama, especially these high technology
jobs that are absolutely vital to Alabama’s
future,” Riley said. “With the outstanding
leadership of Dynetics, Alabama is moving
forward.”
Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/
Madison County Board Chair Don Nalley
said the project involved a number of regional
economic development partners.
“Dynetics is a wonderful story, an employee
owned company that continues to
expand its facilities and its employment with
the kinds of jobs that will keep our local
economic engine running strong for years to
come,” Nalley said. “Announcements of this
stature typically include many long hours of
work that occurs behind the scenes involving
the company and our team of economic
development partners, from the State of Alabama
and the Alabama Development Office
to the City of Huntsville, the Madison County
Commission and other state and regional
partners such as the Tennessee Valley Authority
and Huntsville Utilities.”
Tom Baumbach, company president, said,
“As Dynetics continues to grow and expand
our customer base, we wanted to be able to
offer our customers more solutions right here
locally. Our customers have relied on us for
the past 36 years to provide them with responsive,
low-cost solutions, and we will continue
to do that more effectively than ever.”
And many of those solutions will be
space-related.
“This new facility will enable us to expand
our space systems development and
production capabilities,” said Dave King,
executive vice president for Dynetics. “This
includes the development and integration
of small satellites, our missile work and our
work for commercial customers such as Bigelow
Aerospace, Boeing, Lockheed Martin
and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. We will
be able to offer enhanced support to NASA,
including support for the agency’s new direction
to build heavy lift rockets and implement
new technologies.”
Bendickson said there has long been a
need to have great “anchor tenants” in the
building – and with a couple of classified
programs that constitute at least one of
those anchor tenants, the time was right for
construction. And rest assured company
leaders already have an eye on the next wave
of growth.
“We’re considering additional growth beyond
the facility,” he said. “There’s a lot of
unknown out there, but we might one day
need more of a dedicated facility to manufacture
a unique product. There’s a lot of opportunity
out there if we can land some of
these big programs.”
• John Southerland
23
Initiatives December 2010