LAW CO. WINS $20M CONTRACT TO BUILD CESSNA'S ARIZONA SERVICE CENTER 
Wichita Business Journal - by Ken Vandruff 
Cessna Aircraft Co. wants the contractor who built the aircraft manufacturer's huge Wichita service center to build a smaller version in Mesa, Ariz.

The Law Co. Inc. will be the general contractor for a $20 million Citation Service Center at Mesa's Williams Gateway Airport that is scheduled to open in January 2009.

The 100,000-square-foot facility will resemble the 450,000-square-foot Citation Service Center that Law Co. built at Wichita's Mid-Continent Airport in 2004. That experience helped Law win the contract, says Stan Younger, Cessna's vice president for service facilities.

"They were very aggressive through the bid process," Younger says. "It had a lot to do with answering our questions, conforming to the bid request and, all in all, looking like they had the knowledge of how we wanted to build this project."

The Law Co. was the only Wichita-based construction company out of 10 bidders on the project. Building the Wichita service center was key to getting the Mesa project, says Rich Kerschen, president and chairman of the Law Co.

"These are kind of unique projects," Kerschen says. "In this instance the big ticket item is steel. We've got to get the structural steel there when we need it to be there so we can get it erected and get this project completed in plenty of time for Cessna."

The new service center will be slightly larger than Expo Hall at Century II in downtown Wichita. It will initially employ 120 people with plans to grow to more than 200 workers. It replaces Cessna's Citation Service Center in Long Beach, Calif.

Carter & Burgess Inc., based in Dallas, is the architect for the project.

Airport Development
Williams Gateway Airport is a former U.S. Air Force base that closed in 1993. It is being redeveloped as an aerospace center, and education, research and training facility. It also is a reliever airport to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Cessna will be the second largest tenant at Williams Gateway. Boeing leases four buildings at the airport that employs more than 300 people.

The Williams Gateway Airport Authority is building 125,000 square feet of new parking ramp space plus connecting taxiways to accommodate Cessna's new building.

"Even beyond having the maintenance facility, it brings international attention to business opportunities here at the airport," says Brian Sexton, Williams Gateway Airport Authority spokesman. "So having a name like Cessna brings other businesses in alongside of it."
http://wichita.bizjournals.com/wichita/  for complete article