BRUNSWICK

Kestrel Aircraft Co. announced in January it planned to manufacture its turboprop plane in Wisconsin, potentially creating up to 600 jobs there — not at Brunswick Landing.

The announcement was deemed the No. 5 most important 2012 news story in the Mid-coast region, in an informal poll of readers and editors.

Wisconsin officials said an “aggressive” financing package had lured Kestrel to build a manufacturing plant in Superior, Wis., instead of Brunswick, where company founder Alan Klapmeier had announced in July 2010 he planned to create 300 to 600 jobs.

Klapmeier assured his 28 Kestrel employees in Brunswick their jobs were safe, and that he planned to increase the work force here.

“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 said Kestrel Aircraft and AeroWorks would 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.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. created an enterprise zone in Superior — which Klapmeier said is similar to Maine’s Pine Tree Zone — to provide $18 million in tax credits to Kestrel. Wisconsin also provided a $2 million loan and said it would work with the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority to secure a $2 million small business loan.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage was disappointed by the news.

“Certainly the governor was disappointed — we’ve been working with these folks for many, many months,” said LePage’s communications director at the time, Peter Rogers. Maine “offered Kestrel a pretty generous package, all in all,” Rogers said. “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 was 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 here, 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.

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