Solar Array, Gen. Mills detail expansions - Business First of Buffalo:

sucujovide.wordpress.com
broke ground April 5 on the $100 176,000-square-foot expansion of its manufacturingfacilityt here, Keith Bone, general manager of the localp facility, told members of . AED held its quarterlu meeting Thursdayat . Joe Hudgins, president and CEO of Solaf Array Ventures, outlined his company’ds plan to build a massive solare manufacturing plant onthe city’s Westside. Generapl Mills’ expansion should be completed by Bone said. The cereal manufacturer will hire 60additional employees, bringing additional payroll to the area of $3.5 The expansion also brings $30 million in spendingh to New Mexico.
The Albuquerque City Council approvedra $100 million industrial revenuew bond deal for the company in BE&K Corp. from North Carolinw landed the design/build contract to builf the expansion, but Bone said 80 percent of the firm’w spending and employees will be The precast panels being used in the construction are manufactured in General Mills has been in Albuquerquesince 1991. Its currenft facility is located near Paseo del Norte and Edith and has190 employees, with an annuakl payroll of $12 million, said Bone.
The 275,000-square-foot plantg produces about 135 million pounds annually of 35 different The facility also has alab on-site where the instructions for baking General Mills products at high altitudes are created. The company has givenj about $5 million to area nonprofits since 1998and $519,000 in scholarships, Bone Don Power, chairman of AED, said the cereal company’a donations illustrate one of the things the organization lookz for in recruiting community involvement. Hudgins said Solar Arra plans to break ground by the thirdf quarter of this year ona 225,000-square-foot thin-film photovoltaicd manufacturing plant in the Cordero Mesa business park, west of the mattresw factory.
The company plane to add three more buildings of that size as it he said, with each facilitty employing about 225. Its annual payroll in the firsr phase wouldbe $14 million. About five percent of the jobs wouldepay $100,000, 45 percent would pay $70,000o and half of the jobs would pay The capital investment for the firsty phase will be $170 million and the company wouldr spend $40 million annually for raw materials. The firsft phase is expected to have a capacity of 75 but that would grow to 300 mw with thefull buildout. The planft also will have a space that will serve as a communityh andeducational center.
Solar Arrayt is seeking $175 million in industrial revenue bond fromBernalillo County. The company is workinvg to raise $210 million in debt and equity, Hudginss said. Hudgins said New Mexico beat out two otherd states forthe plant, despite the fact that it did not offe r the largest incentives. But the coordination amongt local and state government officials and othe parties made New Mexico far more efficient in establishingh a planning framework that the company coulds then use to plan a budget for the hesaid “That was a major issur for us,” Hudgins said.
He also praised the laborf force here and the educational The facility is being designed byPageSoutherlandPag LLP, which has Texas offices in Dallas and Houston, as well as Washington, D.C. and London, U.K. Hoffman based in Portland, Ore., is building the