SALINA — Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) says it “will not consider” any plans that would impact the future of its site in Salina “for at least the next year.”
Citing the “current sequestration environment,” the firm is reviewing its entire business to determine what it needs to do to maintain its “competitiveness,” Lockheed Martin said in a statement emailed to CNYBJ.com and The Central New York Business Journal.
“Restructuring is one of the options we consider, but no decision has been taken,” according to the Bethesda, Md.–based defense contractor.
Lockheed Martin will continue to monitor the budget environment and adjust its strategy “accordingly,” but the firm also notes “operations in Syracuse will continue at this time.”
The statement follows a report Thursday in The Post-Standard and Syracuse.com that Lockheed Martin had abandoned a “secret” plan to close the Salina plant and transfer its 1,700 employees to other locations.
In response to that report, a dozen economic-development officials and elected representatives wrote a letter to Marillyn Hewson, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp.
They included Robert Simpson, president and CEO of CenterState CEO, the area’s main economic-development and chamber of commerce organization; Kenneth Adams, president and CEO of Empire State Development Corp., New York’s lead economic-development agency; Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney; U.S. Representative Daniel Maffei (D–DeWitt); U.S. Senators Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D–N.Y.); and five of the area’s state lawmakers.
Saying they “understand the business environment is becoming increasingly competitive and uncertain,” those who signed the letter have requested a meeting with Hewson and “appropriate members” of her team to “accomplish three specific objectives,” the letter says.
The officials want to “gain a clear understanding” of the competitive and cost issues that Lockheed Martin is facing, particularly those related to its site at Electronics Park.
They also want to reassure the company that the concerned officials will do “all” they can to “both address the challenges facing the company and secure new opportunities to help retain its presence in Central New York,” the letter says.
The officials are also hoping Lockheed Martin will allow them “to outline specific ways that we can help, whether it is by the actions of our representatives on the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, through innovative state economic-development programs by which a significant portion of the Electronics Park campus could be designated as tax free, or by new creative ways that we develop together,” the letter says.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com