Aerospace parts maker gets $500G to stay on LI

An aerospace manufacturer in Suffolk County received $500,000 from New York State Wednesday to produce components for Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner passenger airplane.

The grant from the Empire State Development Corp. is part of a $5.3-million investment by GKN Aerospace's Monitor Division in machinery and equipment to fulfill Boeing orders. GKN has pledged to create 69 jobs at its Amityville factory and preserve 290 in exchange for state assistance, officials said.

The company makes titanium and aluminum airframe components at its 243,000-square-foot plant on New Horizons Boulevard. It and its British parent also have factories in other states.

Edwin Lee, a senior project manager at the development corporation, said Wednesday the state grant helped to convince GKN executives to make the Boeing parts on Long Island instead of in Kansas or Missouri. In 2001, GKN purchased Boeing's fabrication factory in St. Louis.

A GKN executive in Amityville did not return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday.

Elizabeth Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the development corporation, said the state had been working with GKN for at least three years on the multimillion-dollar equipment purchase and improvements to the Amityville plant. She said the upgrade project was completed about a year ago.

GKN is among 732 suppliers to The Boeing Co. in New York State, including 22 on Long Island.

Chicago-based Boeing hopes the Dreamliner will help win orders from commercial airlines that may now be using Airbus planes. The Dreamliner can carry between 250 and 290 passengers, depending on the model, and uses 20 percent less fuel. Since 2004, when Boeing unveiled plans for the Dreamliner, nearly 850 planes have been ordered, with a combined value of $164 billion.

In its first meeting since Andrew M. Cuomo became governor, the development corporation Wednesday also approved $1.2 million for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

The grant helps cover the $107-million cost of a six-building, 100,000-square-foot research compound where scientists study cancer, Alzheimer's and other diseases. The complex, called Hillside Laboratories, was completed in 2009 and represents the largest expansion of 120-year-old Cold Spring Harbor Lab.

Also getting state grants Wednesday were the Greenlawn-Centerport Historical Association and Levittown public schools. Each received $50,000.

The historical association plans to use the money for a new roof and cupola at the John Gardiner Farm in Greenlawn, which dates to the 1750s. The repairs are scheduled to begin soon, Mitchell said.

The Levittown schools will use the money to defray costs from tackling traffic safety problems at the high school and middle school.