Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Soar Technology Inc., or SoarTech, plans to double its Orlando footprint and create dozens of local jobs.
The firm, which builds artificial intelligence systems for defense, government and commercial sectors, will invest $1.5 million in a new office and create 26 new, high-wage jobs, said a news release from the Orlando Economic Partnership.
The jobs would be created over the next three years and pay more than the average wage of $56,578 in Orange County.
The company plans to move into a newly constructed Collaboration building in Quadrangle region near the University of Central Florida in early 2022. The new office will double the size of SoarTech's footprint in Orlando — which occupies space at the 126,000-square-foot building at 4715 Data Court northeast of UCF — but the actual size of the new building was not included.
Here are some specifics:
- The company opened a satellite office in Orlando in 2002. SoarTech employs 49 workers in Orlando and 120 nationwide.
- The expansion will help maximize partnership opportunities with the National Center for Simulation and Team Orlando, including the Central Florida Tech Grove.
- SoarTech needed to find and move to a new Orlando office location quickly due to the closing and demolition of its current space for the construction of new student housing at UCF.
- The company's new home in the Collaboration building also houses other local modeling, simulation, and training companies, including Orlando-based AVT Simulation.
Executives with the firm were not available for comment.
SoarTech is well-positioned to work more with local innovators and tackle challenges in artificial intelligence and adjacent industries, said company CEO and President Mike van Lent in a prepared statement
Meanwhile, defense contractors like SoarTech are a major part of Central Florida’s tech sector, and the region wins billions of dollars in federal deals each year. For example, there was $6.2 billion worth of federal contract work ongoing in metro Orlando in fiscal 2021, according to federal contracting data.
This work is important because it generates subcontractor opportunities and high-wage jobs. The defense industry supports more than 196,000 metro Orlando jobs, according to public/private economic development group Enterprise Florida.
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