Exotic Metals Forming Company LLC, a Kent, Wash.-based aerospace supplier, announced this morning at a press conference plans to build a 150,000-square-foot aerospace manufacturing facility on the West Plains.

The facility could create as many as 150 jobs here, says company Vice President and COO Doug Gines. That would add to the 900 people Exotic Metals already employs in Kent.

The project is slated to be completed in the summer of 2015. Bernardo|Wills Architects PC, of Spokane, is the architect on the project, and Walker Construction Inc., of Spokane, will be the general contractor.

The building will be located on a nearly 57-acre site in Airway Heights, near McFarlane Road and Lawson Street. Exotic Metals purchased the land there from Spokane International Airport.

Exotic Metals worked in conjunction the city of Airway Heights for the last 18 months to select the site and complete the transaction. Also involved in the project were the city of Spokane, Spokane County, and Greater Spokane Incorporated.

“Because it involved airport land, it was a very complex transaction,” says Larry Krauter, CEO of Spokane International Airport, at today’s press conference.

Exotic Metals, founded in 1966, engineers, manufactures, and provides after-market products for aerospace systems, particularly high-temperature, high-strength sheet metal designs and fabrications. The company has been looking to add a second manufacturing facility for some time, Gines says.

“Today’s announcement represents a combination of over six years of due diligence,” he says.

Also speaking at today’s conference, Spokane Mayor David Condon said that Exotic will join nearly 100 aerospace companies already operating in the Inland Northwest.

“Today is an important day, a momentous moment, towards our economic goals,” Condon says.