$100 million expansion

Jet engine developer Pratt & Whitney plans to add 215 engineering jobs by 2020.

WEST PALM BEACH — Jet engine developer Pratt & Whitney said Wednesday it would add 215 engineering jobs by 2020 in a $100 million expansion at its campus in northwestern Palm Beach County.

Pratt’s investment includes a new building and new equipment for manufacturing, engineering and the development of new technologies, according to Pratt, a division of Connecticut-based United Technologies Corp., and economic development officials.

State and local governments offered Pratt $3.08 million in economic incentives over eight years for the expansion. The package includes tax breaks, confirmed job-creation incentives and cash, according to Kelly Smallridge, president and CEO of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County. She said the county was in competition with Georgia for the new jobs, which have an average annual salary of $91,124.

Pratt expects to spend more than $100 million for a new campus building, she said.

“Two hundred and fifteen jobs is a very large expansion. Any time we see a company invest that kind of money, it expands their footprint,” Smallridge said.

The estimated economic impact of the expansion is $551 million over five years, according to county documents.

Smallridge said the expansion is especially gratifying since Pratt had retrenched its workforce in the county just a few years ago. But since then, Pratt has had about three expansions, according to Smallridge, whose father worked at Pratt for 30 years until 1996.

Pratt, which has operated in Palm Beach County for 60 years, employs about 1,300 workers at the 7,000-acre campus west of Jupiter. The company develops both military and commercial aircraft engines, including those for the Airbus A320neo and the F-135 engine that powers the Lightning II, developed by Lockheed Martin. Pratt also tests the F-135 engine on the campus.

“Pratt & Whitney’s innovative and unique engines are the future of aviation, and West Palm Beach is at the heart of that,” said Dave Carter, senior vice president of Engineering at Pratt & Whitney.

Previously, Pratt had two active economic incentives contracts with the state with a maximum award of $4.65 million, according to Florida’s economic incentives portal. Of that, the state has paid $3.95 million.

The state incentive total doesn’t include matching funds paid by local government. But in April 2017, Pratt collected $650,000 in economic incentives from the county after completing a $25 million capital investment and meeting its Palm Beach County job creation requirement of 110 new jobs, following its 2014 incentives contract, according to the county.