It will be around 2035 when a rocket motor factory in Hurt will hit its target employment number, a figure 50% higher than Gov. Abigail Spanberger announced Monday.
Avio USA, a national subsidiary of the Rome-based Avio S.p.A, plans to break ground this year in a new 860,000-square-foot manufacturing plant at the Southern Virginia Multimodal Park, Jason El Koubi, the president and CEO of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, confirmed to the Danville Register & Bee.
The plant — manufacturing solid rocket motors for defense, tactical propulsion, missile systems and space sectors — is expected to be up and running by 2028 with 200 employees, he said.
It’ll continue to grow those jobs over five to 10 years to meet 1,546 “direct jobs at full ramp,” El Koubi told the newspaper via email.
The 1,546 figure aligns with Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s reference in his State of the Commonwealth address in January before the General Assembly. Youngkin announced in December that Avio USA picked Virginia for its new facility, but the exact site wasn’t disclosed.
In Spanberger’s announcement — which hit email inboxes at about 4 p.m. Monday — the current governor and El Koubi pegged the total at “more than 1,000 new jobs” in the $500 million project.
“My sense is that it was just to give an order of magnitude,” El Koubi responded when asked by the newspaper why the news release contained the lower figure.
Matt Rowe, the economic development director for Pittsylvania County, also hinted that 1,000 jobs were on the low end, saying he would let the “company determine what the final number will be.”
For the history books, Monday’s announcement ranks second — at least for now — only to Microporous, which announced in 2024 it would create more than 2,000 jobs at the Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill.
The Southern Virginia Multimodal Park has been idle since Burlington Industries shut down in 2007. The textile operation opened in the 1940s — known as Klopman Mills then — before Burlington purchased it in the 1950s.
Located at 797 Main St. in Hurt, the plant dyed and sold cloth, the newspaper previously reported.
At one time, it employed nearly 1,300 workers in the small northern town in Pittsylvania County, one of two main economic drivers across Southside Virginia.
As the textile industry unraveled, so did the future and outlook for the region, also facing the downward trend in tobacco.
After 10 years of dormancy at the site, the leaders of four localities signed a letter of intent to form the Staunton River Regional Industrial Facility Authority.
The town of Hurt, Pittsylvania County and the city of Danville have remained in the group after the town of Altavista eventually dropped out.
“The first necessary step to bringing this property back to life,” Bob Warren, then-chair of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors, said at the 2017 signing ceremony.
It was modeled after the neighboring authority that allows Danville and Pittsylvania County to pool resources for industrial parks. The Danville-Pittsylvania Regional Industrial Facility Authority owns the 3,500-plus-acre Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill, touted as the largest industrial park on the East Coast.
For the Staunton River Regional Industrial Facility Authority, the three localities work under a cost and revenue-sharing agreement. Pittsylvania County has the lion’s share at 61%, Danville has 35% and Hurt is at 4%.
“I am so proud to be a part of such a transformative time in history for Pittsylvania County,” Robert Tucker, chair of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors, said in the statement announcing the project.
“This is a proud moment here in Southern Virginia as we take a vacant site that was once home to Burlington Industries and transform it into a home for Avio,” he said. “Being able to see this site back active and employing numerous people warms my heart.”
Linda Green, the executive director of the Southern Virginia Regional Alliance, said the facility in Hurt is “a powerful testament” to the network for workforce development partnerships in the region.
“Together, we are creating the conditions that attract innovative companies like Avio, USA — those that will thrive in this environment of talent, technology and teamwork,” Green said. “Programs such as the Accelerated Training in Defense Manufacturing at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research exemplify our dedication to supporting companies that are reshoring critical technologies and processes to strengthen our communities and our nation.”
Rowe told the newspaper that Pittsylvania County is one of the “largest producers of talent” for machining jobs. However, given the number of positions open, the worker talent pool will dip into areas north to Amherst County and west into Roanoke County.
“Avio USA’s investment highlights why Virginia has remained a national leader for the advanced manufacturing and defense industries,” Secretary of Commerce and Trade Carrie Chenery said in Monday’s statement. “Pittsylvania County’s prepared sites, skilled workforce, and strong regional partnerships made a project of this scale possible.”
Read the original article here (Charles Wilborn, Register and Bee)