Ron Renz will never forget the day he made the public announcement introducing his new aviation business. It was Sept. 11.

Renz, president of GUT Works LLC, was on the way to the Reno, Nev. air races to begin making sales pitches for the company’s one and only product  a replica World War II Thunder Mustang airplane  when terrorists struck.

“We had a booth at the show, but 100,000 people didn’t show up,” Renz said. “That hurt quite a little bit. But we survived and we’re still here, and that is a major accomplishment in these times.”

Lawrence city commissioners this week gave the company better news. At their Tuesday evening meeting, commissioners agreed to a lease allowing GUT Works to run its assembly and office operations out of a 12,000 square-foot, city-owned hangar at the Lawrence Municipal Airport.

The lease is the final piece of a deal that should clear the way for the company to begin employing up to 12 people at the airport by the end of the year.

Current plans call for assembly work to begin on at least one of the $300,000 planes by the end of this month and for work to begin on two to three more before the end of the year.

Renz said the company, which already has six employees, will be adding up to six more aviation assembly positions that will pay in the $12- to $15-an-hour range.

“We think we’re going to be able to provide some real good jobs,” Renz said. “These aren’t your $7-an-hour fast-food jobs.”

The company’s business plan revolves around selling kits that will allow people to build their own 3/4-scale replica of a World War II P-51D Mustang. GUT Works will use the Lawrence hanger to gather component pieces from across the country and partially assemble the parts to be shipped to customers.

But Renz said the company also will offer a service to help customers assemble the planes. That work, which takes about a year-and-a-half, also would be done at the Lawrence hangar.

Originally, company officials  which include Renz, three silent partners from the Lawrence area and the state-sponsored Kansas Innovation Corporation  had estimated the business to generate about $6 million in sales.

Renz said it is now difficult for the company to make projections, in part because of the terrorist attacks’ effect on the aviation industry and U.S. economy.

“We’re definitely not past all the impacts yet,” Renz said. “It is definitely a different ballgame for us, and to be honest we’re still trying to figure out what all those differences are.

“The encouraging part is there is still business there, but it is definitely less than what it was.”

Completing the lease for the city hangar, though, has already started to create dividends for the company. Renz said new investors have shown interest in the company since it has a base from which to operate.

Renz said the business was close to signing a major deal, details of which he wouldn’t disclose, that would put the company well on its way to meeting its goal of raising $1 million to $1.5 million in capital during the next two years.

The hangar formerly was home to DreamWings LLC, another aviation start-up company, that convinced city officials to spend $400,000 in renovations at the hangar, but went bankrupt last summer before it ever produced a plane.