Lockheed building again on Bradford Drive

Lockheed Martin Corp. said Wednesday that it is expanding its operations in Huntsville with a new $30 million, 166,000-square-foot office building on its Bradford Drive campus.

Lockheed was the first company to build in Cummings Research Park, locating there in 1962 on 80 acres, said Bob Drolet, director of Lockheed's Huntsville operations.

"We started with 12 employees in 1962, and by 1992 that was up to 100," Drolet said during a news conference to announce the building. "Today, we have more than 550 at our Bradford Drive site, and we have about another 200 spread out (across Huntsville) with other companies performing work."

Drolet said Lockheed will use the new building to manage missile defense programs such as the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense system, the multinational Medium Extended Air Defense System and directed-energy or laser missile defense programs.

Construction will begin in August and will be managed by Huntsville-based Sunnyvale II Development Group. Drolet said he expects work to be complete by fall 2007. The building will not replace any existing Lockheed facilities, Drolet said.

"We aren't tearing down anything to make way for it," he said.

This is the second major local expansion for Lockheed in 10 years. The defense and space contractor opened a 170,000-square-foot building in 1996, Drolet said.

Huntsville Mayor Loretta Spencer said Lockheed has always been a driving force in the local economy. "We could not be the community we are if our companies and their people did not give back," Spencer told a gathering of about 100 businesspeople at the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce.

Drolet said the expansion is not directly tied to the relocation of three major Army commands and other military work coming to Huntsville because of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC, Commission decision, Drolet said.

That decision should bring about 4,700 federal jobs to Huntsville by 2011, and leaders expect another 5,000 contractor jobs could follow.

"That type of BRAC growth certainly will boost all of Huntsville," Drolet said. "We've had outstanding growth as a business ?and expect to match that and maybe grow more over the next year to 18 months."

Madison County Commission Chairman Mike Gillespie said he would love to relocate more of Lockheed's work to North Alabama. "You have 135,000 employees across the country now," Gillespie said. "More need to come here to Huntsville, in my opinion."