Francisco Estrada, regional director of Mexico City-based Corporacion Inmobiliaria Vesta, which is developing AIC in joint venture with Intramerica, a subsidiary of GE Real Estate, says the developer is negotiating with several other companies to locate in the complex. He expects eight or nine additional tenants to have signed for space by the end of next year. The 173-acre AIC, which is situated within Querétaro International Airport, is being built on land donated by the State of Querétaro. The state has also set aside funds to pay for construction of new roads and water and power lines to serve the site. At completion about 30 manufacturing tenants are projected to occupy the development's 2.4 million sf of space.

The Bombardier plant, which can be expanded to one million sf, is the second major aerospace facility to open in the city since fall. France's Messier Services Américas dedicated a 100,000-sf building in October that it uses to perform maintenance and repairs for Bombardier, De Havilland, Airbus and Boeing aircraft. In addition, Spain's Aernnova Aerospace has announced plans to build a $134 million, 215,000-sf factory in Parque Industrial Queretaro, a 1.2 million-acre complex where the Aeroquip Group of Cleveland's Eaton Corp. has had an airplane parts plant since 1999.

According to he US Department of Commerce, last year Mexico was the 10th largest supplier for the US aerospace industry. The Mexican government has made expansion of the industry a primary economic goal, with the aim of becoming one of the top five US suppliers over the next decade. But the country is marketing itself to European and Asian manufacturers as well. The nation's vice-minister for international trade recently escorted a contingent of 29 Japanese aerospace executives