BRUNSWICK

In the wake of Monday’s announcement that Kestrel Aircraft Co. plans to manufacture its turboprop plane in Superior, Wis. — and create up to 600 jobs there, and not at Brunswick Landing — the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority will regroup at a previously scheduled retreat and meeting this afternoon.

Speaking at the Richard I. Bong Airport on Monday, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker announced that an “aggressive” financing package had lured Kestrel to build a manufacturing plant in Superior, instead of Brunswick, where Alan Klapmeier announced in July 2010 he planned to create 300 to 600 jobs.

“We’ve decided to do the manufacturing of the Kestrel aircraft in Wisconsin,” Kestrel chief executive officer Klapmeier told The Times Record late Sunday night.

But in a letter Monday, Klapmeier assured his 28 Kestrel employees in Brunswick that their jobs are safe, and that he plans to increase the work force there.

“ We would like to reiterate the assurances that have already been given to the Brunswick staff — we will continue growing the Kestrel AeroWorks program and the substantial

K-350 engineering effort at the Brunswick Landing facility,” Klapmeier wrote. “ Everyone’s job is secure, and it is our intention to increase the scale of our operations in Brunswick and recruit more people to work at our Brunswick facility.”

Klapmeier told The Times Record on Monday that Kestrel Aircraft and AeroWorks will still be based in Brunswick, while a new operation, Kestrel Manufacturing, will be based in Superior. Finishing of the aircraft will still take place in Brunswick, as will delivery of the planes to customers, he said.

In a statement issued Monday, Walker wrote that the “aggressive package” offered to Kestrel resulted in a commitment from the company to create “up to 600 new jobs” in Superior.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. (WEDC) plans to create an enterprise zone in Superior — which Klapmeier said Sunday is similar to Maine’s Pine Tree Zone — to provide $18 million in tax credits to Kestrel. The WEDC also will provide a $2 million loan and “is working with” the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority to secure a $2 million small business credit loan — with repayment of that loan and eligibility of the tax credits based on capital investment, worker training and job creation by the company.

Finally, WHEDA “has committed to work with Kestrel” to obtain another $30 million in New Market Tax credits.

Klapmeier told The Times Record on Monday afternoon that he expects to “start seeing funds flow” from Wisconsin on Thursday.

Superior-Douglas County Chamber of Commerce President Dave Minor said Monday that not since World War II has this many jobs been created in the community, according to The Superior Telegram.

On Monday, the city’s redevelopment authority approved a cooperative agreement between the city and Douglas County for 13.3 acres near the airport for the project, and a development agreement between the city and Kestrel Aircraft Co.

Construction on a 35,000- square- foot facility, where composite materials for the plane will be built, is expected to begin in June.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage was returning from a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event on Monday when he received a call from Economic and Community Development Commissioner George Gervais informing him of Kestrel’s decision, according to Le- Page’s communications director, Peter Rogers.

“Certainly the governor was disappointed — we’ve been working with these folks for many, many months,” Rogers said. The state of Maine, he said “offered Kestrel a pretty generous package, all in all. I know our folks made it as easy as possible. (But) we still have not received (Kestrel’s) financials.”

LePage assigned the same team to work with Kestrel that he sent to work with Great Northern Paper Mills, Rogers said, and there, “we’ve had some real success stories.”

As Kestrel moves forward with plans in Wisconsin, Klapmeier said he is committed to growing his work force in Brunswick, eventually to 100 positions.

Kestrel has nine years remaining on a 10-year lease for half of a 170,000-squarefoot hangar, and must, under terms of New Market Tax Credits the company already received, maintain a presence here for seven years, MRRA executive director Steve Levesque said today.

But Levesque and Sen. Stan Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick, said MRRA continues to field inquiries about hangar space at Brunswick Landing.

Local and state officials in Maine, as well as the redevelopment authority, “believed we had a solid commitment” from Kestrel to locate the manufacturing jobs at Brunswick Landing.

Gerzofsky added, “ We weren’t the only option for Kestrel; at the same time, Kestrel wasn’t the only option for us.”

Gerzofsky said MRRA has fielded other inquiries — including from aeronautical companies — about the space, but, “We said, ‘No, we have someone in there.’”

Now, he said, “We will start negotiating with other companies more seriously.”

Calls on Monday to John Moncure, executive director of the MRRA board of directors, were not returned.

“ We have had a lot of inquiries about that building, and we told them that the building was not available — at least not the half of the building that Kestrel is in,” Levesque said today. “As long as Kestrel has a lease and pays their rent, they’re going to be there. Their plan is do the finishing of the aircraft and other activities that will mean about 100 jobs. But it’s a good building, and a lot of people are interested in that building. And we still have the other side of that hangar we can make available as well.”

Levesque said the redevelopment effort may have a new tool to work with if MRRA is approved next month to allocate up to $68 million in New Market Tax Credits. Previously, he said Kestrel’s project would receive the first allocation, but now, if MRRA is approved, those tax credits “would be available for existing companies as well as potential new customers.”