Havelock Scoop

That cavernous, vacant shell of a commercial air depot in Kinston — the Global TransPark — is getting its first large tenant. Spirit Aerosystems plans to bring a $600 million plant to the park, creating 1,100 jobs for locals, according to the Free Press.

Craven County businesspeople are giddy about the project, the Sun Journal reported today. We could see some economic benefits from the GTP’s success here — which is ostensibly why our county commissioners have helped prop up this turkey for 15 years. But, even if a fraction of Spirit’s cash comes to Craven, the lion’s share is staying in Lenoir.

I’m all for regionalism, but I don’t believe Craven County taxpayers should be forced to invest in this Lenoir County boondoggle. Craven has its own airport and industrial park — shouldn’t we be competing with Kinston for big business instead of helping a city 33 miles away sweeten the pot and lure the highrollers?

I hope Kinston does prosper, but not at the expense of New Bern and Craven County. Let’s boost our own economy before we give our western neighbor a leg up.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 12:15 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.