BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The chair of the Keystone Heights Airport Authority board told his fellow board members during their October 7 meeting that “a fairly significant business group from India” is interested in leasing airport land.
Gen. Jim Eifert said the enterprise just completed a multi-billion-dollar project in the United Arab Emirates and contacted airport officials through the Northeast Florida Economic Development Corporation.
Eifert said he had just concluded his third meeting with the prospects and that it would be sending representatives to the economic development corporation’s annual meeting in October.
The chairman said the business is involved in electric ground and airborne vehicles, robotics, and other technology businesses.
“The impetus…that has kind of spurred the interest has been, frankly, the tariffs that the administration is currently imposing on other countries and imports,” Eifert said. “And so that has spurred significant activity in them trying to immediately get into the American market and develop some of these future technological capabilities in America and specifically in Florida.”
Eifert explained the company is more interested in airport property located in Bradford County because of lower fees and fewer regulations, compared to Clay County.
About one-half of the airport’s 2,476 acres are in Bradford County, with the remainder in Clay.
