Louisiana calls off Bell Helicopter deal

BATON ROUGE — Louisiana has ended its economic development deal with Bell Helicopter and is trying to recover millions of dollars in subsidies, saying the company failed to create the jobs promised in the $26 million facility built by the state.

Economic Development Secretary Don Pierson announced late Tuesday that he made the decision after “four years of underperformance by the company.”

The company disagreed Wednesday that it violated the terms of its Louisiana deal. But with the state cutting off incentives, Bell has started closure of the Lafayette facility involved in the dispute and filed a lawsuit in state court Tuesday seeking to avoid repayment to the state.

The deal with Bell Helicopter was highly touted when announced by former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration in 2013, with the company planning to assemble helicopters in Lafayette and create 115 full-time jobs. Louisiana competed with several states to win the project.

Pierson said Bell employs 22 people at the site today, not even meeting renegotiated, lower job benchmarks.

When the deal was announced, the Jindal administration agreed the state would build a $26.3 million 82,000-squarefoot hangar facility at Lafayette Regional Airport that Bell would lease. The state offered $8 million in additional grants for infrastructure, equipment, relocation and other expenses.