(SAINT PAUL, MINN., April 1, 2015) - After growing anticipation and a lengthy selection process, the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce today announced that it has been selected as the developer for the Ford Site in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Working with neighborhood, city, and industry leaders, the Chamber announced that, starting this fall, construction will begin on the Flygplats Airship Factory. This "center of excellence" for airships will be an international leader in blimp construction.

"We have long known that Minnesota and the MN Legislature in particular were a hot-bed of hot air. Yet we have never been able to harness this sustainable resource for commerce," said Matt Kramer, President of the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce. "With the Flygplats plan, we are now, for the first time, combining our love of blimps with the raw source of hot-air so needed for this burgeoning industry."

The 122-acre land parcel will be primarily used for manufacturing of the airships, though about a third of that space will be used as a hot air storage facility to fuel the crafts. The new development on the site is expected to add roughly 1,038 jobs to the Saint Paul business economy, including aircraft pilots and Saint Paul air tour-space-guides. A charter school is also expected on-site, educating both future airship designers as well as politicians.

"We were originally concerned that the Minnesota Legislature was only in session for part of the year," said Börje Jönsson, President of Flygplatsen North America, "but we were reassured once we measured and evaluated the number of city council meetings across the Twin Cities. Thus reassured that we had a year around source of hot-air, we made the strategic decision to invest in Minnesota."

The Chamber is proud to have been selected as the site developer. With a proven track record of making the impossible only moderately challenging, we are confident we can make this site a carbon neutral, but hot air positive, sustainable development.