By DANA TIMS
Correspondent, The Oregonian

EUGENE -- A California-based aero-space supplier announced its intentions Wednesday to build a large manufacturing facility on a 100-acre tract just outside Eugene's northeastern city limits.

Rohr Industries Inc, a Fortune 500 company with sales of more than $1 billion in 1989, plans to use the site to build the aero-dynamic structures that surround jet engines.

Work is slated to begin this spring on the 140,000-square-foot facility, which would provide initial employment for 65 workers, officials said during a telephone interview from the corporation's head-quarters in Chula Vista, Calif.

Employment could hit 250 within three years, said Dick Dalton, the company's pubic relations manager.

Dalton stressed that the plan is still considered tentative since negotiations for the land, located near Eugene's Mahlon Sweet Airport, are still under way. Land-use problems, including acquisition of special-use permits and wetlands issues, also remain in flux, he said.

If the permit process moves smoothly, groundbreaking for the facility is expected to begin this spring, Dalton said. Production could get under way by September.

"Our clear intention is to cross the hurdles necessary to bring this project to reality,'' he said.

Company officials selected Eugene over several other Oregon cities -- and other states, as well -- due to job-training assistance, access to airlines and Interstate 5 and low utility rates, he said.

Eugene's bid for the facility was bolstered considerably by an employment and training package assembled by the Southern Willamette Private Industry Council. The package, which amounts to about $160,000 in the first year alone, includes extensive use of Lane Community College training programs and applicant screening by the State Employment Service.

The city of Eugene, aided by the state, has offered to spend $1.4 million to make the proposed site suitable for development. The money would ensure that public services, such as water and sewer, are provided to the site. Bob Buchanan, director of the Oregon Economic Development Department, called the proposal a ''major milestone'' in the state's efforts to diversify its economic base.

"This marks one of the first projects in the aerospace Industry that targets Oregon," Buchanan said at an afternoon news conference. "It can help us weather some of the economic cycles to come."

Rohr Industries currently employs 11,500 workers at nine facilities in the United States, and one in Toulouse, France. The 50-year-old corporation specializes in building the heat-resistant parts that house jet engines.

The company has opened five new plants in the past five years and has added more than one million square feet of facility space in the past three years.

Roughly 75 percent of Rohr's sales are to commercial companies such as Boeing, Lockheed and Rolls Royce. Government and military contracts make up the remainder.