Officials gathered at the San Marcos Regional Airport on Friday morning to celebrate the ground breaking of a 31,000-square-foot aviation maintenance and supply chain headquarters expansion. Last year, Berry Aviation Inc., which provides airlift and aviation services for commercial, private and government entities, signed a 40-year land lease with the city of San Marcos. On Friday, the company broke ground on the new $2.7 million facility, which will include a 20,000-square-foot maintenance hangar, a machine shop, a nondestructive testing lab, a state-of-the-art parts retrieval system, and more than 10,000 square feet of office space. According to a news release, the new facility will allow Berry Aviation to work on larger aircraft in a controlled environment and perform component overhaul for third-party air carriers. The expansion, which is set to be complete in late fall 2018, is expected to bring an additional 20-30 high-skill jobs to the area. The regional airport is operated by Texas Aviation Partners as part of a contract with the city. Berry Aviation will celebrate 35 years in business this October and conducts flight operations in 24 countries. www.berryaviation.com