Bell Textron Inc. is ready to take off in north Fort Worth with an investment of $632 million in a new factory for a next-generation aircraft.
Gov. Greg Abbott, Mayor Mattie Parker, Bell CEO Lisa Atherton and other area leaders joined together on Dec. 17 at the Bell Manufacturing Technology Center in north Fort Worth to announce final plans to open a new manufacturing plant in the Alliance area to build the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft, or FLRAA.
“This project is obviously transformational for Tarrant County … as well as in Denton County,” said Abbott. “But also it’s transformative for the future of the state of Texas, our workforce, but maybe most importantly, it’s transformative for our United States military.”
The project is expected to create 520 full-time jobs with an average annual salary of $85,000 by the end of 2039. Bell won the FLRAA contract in 2022. At the time, military officials said the contract was worth $1.3 billion but could end up being worth in the range of $70 billion over the long term.
“It’s kind of a big deal when you have an opportunity of that size come around,” Atherton said.
The future facility will be located in a 448,000-square-foot site at 15100 N. Beach St., near Alliance. In an application for state incentives filed in February, Bell said it planned to expand the building by 5,400 square feet.
The Fort Worth City Council approved over $47 million in incentives on Dec. 10. Bell applied for tax breaks through the state via the Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation Act program, or JETI, the program that replaced a previous state incentive program.
The Bell announcement was the first use of the new JETI program.
Parker said the announcement is key to the city’s future as a leader in aerospace manufacturing and defense.
“We need to continue to strive to do this,” she said. “It takes programs like this to continue to push forward.”
Government and company officials visited the Bell Manufacturing Technology Center to announce final plans for a major manufacturing center in Fort Worth. (Bob Francis | Fort Worth Report) The Bell plan also had to be approved by Denton County Commissioners Court and the Northwest Independent School District. Representatives from both parties were also on hand for the announcement.
“This is monumental for us,” said Steve Montgomery, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. “Just think of the employment and the long-term investment this represents for generations to come. Monumental is probably the only word that fits.”
Bell, headquartered in Fort Worth, currently employs more than 4,000 people. In March, the company opened a $20 million test lab in Arlington dedicated to testing parts for its future helicopters.
Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
