Vero Beach residents can breathe a sigh of relief: It looks like Piper Aircraft Inc. is sticking around town.
After almost a year of sometimes agonizing negotiations with the plane maker, Indian River County officials plan to vote this month on a $12 million incentive package that appears enticing enough to keep Piper local. The deal probably will be sealed at a commission meeting Jan. 15, Commission Chairman Gary Wheeler said last week, adding that the outlook was "very, very positive."
"They were looking, I believe, at tremendous expense for relocating, retraining, moving people," Wheeler said.
In the end, that's what gave Vero Beach the edge over the two other cities Piper was considering: Oklahoma City and Albuquerque, N.M.
"They've been here 50 years. They've got 1,100 trained employees that do their job well," Wheeler said.