By David Lyons | South Florida Sun Sentinel

Broward County is adding a prominent player to its portfolio of aviation and aerospace industry firms with the arrival of Ontic, a global maintenance, repair and overhaul company that intends to set up shop in Miramar and employ 88 people.

Ontic provides complex engineered parts and repair services for existing aircraft in the defense and commercial markets. The company maintains operations across North America and plans to spend $10 million reconfiguring a 64,000-square-foot space at the Miramar Centre Business Park, according to a statement issued Wednesday by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, the county’s public-private economic development agency.

The company received location assistance from the alliance, which credited Broward College and CareerSource Florida as helping to supply a qualified pool of workers.

Ontic, which is also a leading manufacturer of aerospace parts, is in the process of recruiting workers for the business and expects to start operating in Miramar early next year, the statement said. The jobs will include positions in operations and sales leadership, sales, supply chain and planning, inspection, engineers who specialize in quality, controls, testing and manufacturing, health and safety, customer service, contracts, facilities, and mechanical, avionics, and electrical technicians.'

The items the company repairs include electromechanical components, flight control components, cabin instrumentation, linear and rotary actuators, navigation controls, ground support systems, radars, flight surface controls and fuel measurement systems.

The Miramar facility is the company’s first foray into Florida, and its eighth worldwide.

Relocation from North Carolina

“Florida was the natural choice for our expansion as it is already an MRO hub with ample skilled labor and a business-friendly environment, which also acts as a gateway to South American markets,” said Jack Karapetyan, vice president of Ontic’s global MRO operations. The company says it is planning similar facilities for Europe and Asia.

The company said the Miramar operation is actually a relocation of a maintenance and repair operation in North Carolina, a move that will allow the company’s other businesses more space to grow there.

Ontic was assisted by broker Tom Viscount of Avison Young for the company’s lease; the landlord was represented by Larry Dinner of CBRE.

The company is majority owned by CVC Capital Partners plc, a European private equity firm that last month announced it will extend its ownership role for another four to five years, according to Ontic.

A target industry

The alliance has long pegged aviation as one of its major target industries for economic development with the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport as a centerpiece of a multibillion-dollar industry that includes airlines, general aviation, airports, airframe and engine manufacturers, component parts suppliers, and maintenance, repair and overhaul businesses such as Ontic.

The area’s leading aviation companies, according to the alliance website, include:

CDB Aviation (China Development Bank), CTS Jet Engines, Embraer, GA Telesis, GE Aviation, Heico Corp., International Aircraft Associates, JetBlue Airways, Kellstrom Aerospace Group, OSM Aviation, Sintavia, Spirit Airlines, Turbine Controls, Inc., and Wayman Aviation.