With $2.5 million from the state, the City of Renton is developing the Renton Aerospace Training Center at its airport where Renton Technical College will train much-needed aerospace workers.

An architect has been hired to determine whether it makes sense to remodel the former Renton Chamber of Commerce headquarters on Rainier Avenue for the training center or to build new after tearing down the roughly 50-year-old building.

RTC would train 120 students per quarter, with a staff of four faculty members two full-time and two part-time, according to RTC President Steve Hanson. RTC would offer Aerospace Manufacturing Assembly Mechanic certificate training, The college established the program in 2011 to train assembly mechanics.

The college may offer short-term training in areas such as tooling and quality assurance, he said. The Precision Machining Technologies Program will remain on the main campus.

RTC will use a portion of a $2.1 million Air Washington grant the Department of Labor to support the expansion of the new center. Increasing the capacity to train workers is a key priority of the grant, he said.

Renton led the lobbying efforts to obtain the $2.5 million from the states capital budget, in partnership with RTC and The Boeing Co., to develop the center, said Suzanne Dale Estey, the citys economic development director.

We want to make sure this is a legacy project for the aerospace industry and the community, said Dale Estey, who added the citys sense is that the aerospace industry is in Renton for decades to come.

Boeing is already producing its 737 at the Renton plant at record levels and that rate will continue to increase, to 42 planes, if not higher. At the same time Boeing is anticipating an increase in retirees, so it will need to replace them with new trained workers.

The goal is to complete the design in six months, then begin construction early next year, with the building ready to accept its first students in 2014, Dale Estey said.

The training center is part of a plan Dale Estey drafted in June 2011 to help develop and support the existing aerospace industry, including suppliers, in Renton and to attract new companies.

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