XCOR, Midland Work Out Deal on Texas Hangar
The Midland Development Corporation and XCOR have struck a deal relating to the company’s hangar in Texas.
XCOR agreed to give Hangar A — or half of the building XCOR occupies at the Spaceport Business Park — back to the city. The more than 40,000-square-foot space would cost about $7.5 million to build, which is the same amount of tax revenue that MDC gets in one year.
XCOR will also pay $6,000 a month to lease its remaining half, or Hangar B.
In exchange, the MDC passed an agenda item reimbursing XCOR for about $795,500 for improvements to Hangar A…
(XCOR has) come to the conclusion that they basically had more space than they really needed at this point,” said Robert Rendall, MDC board member. “At the same time, we had prospects that are interested in coming to the Spaceport business park, so it was just a good opportunity for us to relook at their needs and our needs and possibly provide space for other companies that wanted to come in without having to build them a building right now.”
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9 responses to “XCOR, Midland Work Out Deal on Texas Hangar”
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Yep, now they have them committed the nickel and diming that local Texas governments are good at starts… At least they paid them for the improvements that XCOR had to make. But if XCOR is smart they will keep a presence in Mojave to return to when they need to do so.
Anywhere really. Its the business incentives game. You only have three years or so before the “honeymood period” runs out and they start treating you like any other local business and expect you to deliver on the promised employment and revenues.
I was surprised about the Midland deal. Or that they were able to sell themselves as a “spaceport”. Its not a major metro area, but at the same time bracketed by two small cities, under a major air corridor, etc. XCOR is no where near ready for commercial operation, and so forth…
I have a feeling that when it is all said and done both XCOR and Blue Origins will end up flying out of Spaceport America for their suborbital tourist business.
Midland has too many folks under the flight paths, plus an endangered subspecies of Prairie Chicken, to allow the flight volume needed without complaints and lawsuits once the sonic booms start. I don’t think they have a clue what it is like to live next to a spaceport. When they learn they will not be happy.
I lived just outside of Organ NM when they were testing the DC-X. More than one early morning silence was broken by them testing the engines at the WSTF a few miles away. It was also under the edges of the WSMR airspace and low flying jets often shook the windows. I enjoyed it. It is not everywhere you get to step on to your porch and see F-16s and F-15s dogfighting overhead or a pair of B-1s come by at about 1,000 ft and rattle the windows as they hit their afterburners to climb over a near by mountain. But there were others not as happy about it.
And Jeff Bezos ranch is just too isolated for real commercial service. Plus I have a suspicion he will want his privacy for future research and development work. The Cape is another option, but I expect he will find the weather, and busy skies there an issue for suborbital flights.
At Spaceport America by contrast you could bring the tourists in by business jet for their flights, then fly them out afterward. While the location of the spaceport means zero problems with the noise from sonic booms.
It would be nice if they were flying out of various different spaceports across the country and around the world.
it would be good for SA if they got some revenue out of that facility…
The trouble with XCOR is that they think anybody cares about the mountain of PR they release. Please follow BO’s example and stay quiet until you actually fly a vehicle.
I’ve never thought they issue *that* much PR, just what they do release is irrelevant and uninteresting. In their defense, this wasn’t a press release, but a story by the Midland Reporter Telegram. But yeah, I’d much rather learn more about their closed loop helium powered engine cycle than how much they pay in rent.
XCOR? More like XBORE. #ParabolicSnark.
7 million dollar building with 40,000 SF is $187/SF… Pretty pricey for what is basically a large concrete pad and and a thin aluminum skin….
Mildand-Odessa are/were ground zero for the oil boom, so I can believe they had to pay that much to find a commercial builder that wasn’t out in the oil patch..