Vero Beach Puts Stock In Piper Aircraft

Money talks and a Vero Beach businessman is hoping the community can shout a message to the parent company of Piper Aircraft. According to TCPalm.com Jim Adams is urging all residents in the area who hold shares in American Capital Strategies to sign a letter urging the company to keep building Pipers in Vero Beach. “All they’ll have to do is leave their name with my secretary,” Adams said. “They’ll have to listen to us now. We’re stockholders.” Adams is among several Vero Beach residents who have recently purchased shares to show tangible support for retaining the planemaker, which is shopping for a location in which to expand its current plant and build a new facility for manufacturing the PiperJet. The idea came from a newspaper column which described a residents purchase of 50 shares as a symboilic gesture. Now, there are indications that the idea is spreading to Albuquerque and Oklahoma City, the two cities competing with Vero Beach for the factory. Until now, the bidding war has raged at municipal council tables with all three communities coming up with fat tax incentives to try and lure the company. One newspaper reporter has done the math on Vero Beach-area residents taking over majority control of American Capital Strategies. At the current share price of about $41, each of Indian River Countys 126,000 residents would have to chip in about $30,000.