CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – With roughly 200 new jobs coming to Cedar Rapids-based Rockwell Collins, the city’s mayor is hoping this is a sign of further momentum for business.

“It’s really significant to our community,” said mayor Ron Corbett on Friday afternoon. “Rockwell Collins, being our largest employer, when they are hiring, that is a good sign for everybody. There is that ripple effect in the community. Most of these engineers will move to Cedar Rapids, buying homes and putting kids in school. Overall, that’s a great sign.”

On Thursday, Boeing announced it landed a $30 billion contract from the U.S. Defense Department to construct aerial refueling tanker programs. The new positions expected at Rockwell Collins are part of about 800 new jobs the project will mean for Iowa.

Rockwell Collins will provide the flight deck, aircraft networks, surveillance/airtraffic management equipment, communications gear and navigation gear on the NewGen tanker from Boeing.

Rep. Dave Loebsack, Democrat in Iowa’s Second District, said replacing the current refueling aircraft was long overdue.

“The tankers that are flying today are from the Eisenhower Administration,” said Loebsack, who also serves on the House Armed Services Committee. “The old planes are being flown at the moment. Everyone in the uniform needs these new tankers. The bottom line is they are essential to every mission our Armed Forces undertake.”

Loebsack, speaking on Friday night by phone, added the new jobs are expected to bring in about $40 million to Iowa in economic development.

Rockwell Collins employs more than 9,000 workers throughout the Corridor. The deal with Boeing calls for 18 of the refueling aircraft, now called the KC-46A, to be delivered by 2017.

Corbett said the extra benefit comes for downtown Cedar Rapids as well. In December, Rockwell Collins announced a shift of 400 of the company’s workers to the City Center building at 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue SE.

“We are starting to see signs of the economy picking up and people should be happy about that.”

If the “ripple effect” includes a bump in real estate coming off the slower winter season, Ben Wheeler of Coldwell Banker Hedges, in Cedar Rapids, said they have noticed when Rockwell Collins has expanded in the past.

Yet sellers here must also remember people who move to Eastern Iowa often have to sell a property back home first.

“Sometimes with relocation, if that transfer is coming from a market that is down, they can’t sell their house from where they are coming from and they have to look for an executive rental,” said Wheeler.