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

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broke ground April 5 on the $100 million, 176,000-square-foot expansion of its manufacturin gfacility here, Keith Bone, general manager of the locaol facility, told members of . AED held its quarterlyt meeting Thursdayat . Joe Hudgins, president and CEO of Solar Array Ventures, outlined his company’s plan to buildr a massive solar manufacturin g plant onthe city’s Westside. Generap Mills’ expansion should be completedby November, Bone The cereal manufacturer will hire 60 additional employees, bringing additional payroll to the area of $3.5 million. The expansion also brings $30 millionn in spending to New Mexico.
The Albuquerquew City Council approveda $100 million industrial revenue bond deal for the company in February. BE&K Corp. from Nort h Carolina landed the design/build contract to build the but Bone said 80 percent ofthe firm’es spending and employees will be The precast panels being used in the construction are manufactured in General Mills has been in Albuquerquse since 1991. Its current facility is located near Pase del Norte and Edith and has 190 with an annual payrollof $12 million, said Bone. The 275,000-square-foo plant produces about 135 million pound annually of 35different cereals.
The facility also has a lab on-sitre where the instructions for baking General Millx products at high altitudesare created. The compant has given about $5 million to area nonprofitzs since 1998and $519,000 in scholarships, Bone added. Don chairman of AED, said the cereal company’ws donations illustrate one of the thinge the organization looks for in recruiting community involvement. Hudgins said Solar Array plans to break grounr by the third quarter of this year ona 225,000-square-fooy thin-film photovoltaic manufacturing plant in the Cordero Mesa businesas park, west of the mattress factory.
The company planse to add three more buildings of that size as it he said, with each facility employing about 225. Its annual payroll in the first phase wouldebe $14 million. About five percentf of the jobs wouldpay $100,000, 45 percent woulcd pay $70,000 and half of the jobs wouldc pay $45,000. The capital investmenty for the first phase willbe $170 million and the compan y would spend $40 million annually for raw The first phase is expectedx to have a capacity of 75 but that would grow to 300 mw with the full The plant also will have a space that will serve as a communitt and educational center. Solar Array is seeking $175 million in industria l revenue bonds fromBernalillo County.
The company is workinyg to raise $210 million in debt and equity, Hudginsz said. Hudgins said New Mexico beat out two other states for the despite the fact that it did not offer thelargestt incentives. But the coordination among local and state government officials and othee parties made New Mexico far more efficient in establishingy a planning framework that the companu could then use to plan a budgetr forthe plant, he said “That was a major issuew for us,” Hudgins said. He also praised the labor forcr here and theeducational institutions.
The facilithy is being designed byPageSoutherlandPage LLP, which has Texas offices in Austin, Dallax and Houston, as well as Washington, D.C. and London, U.K. Hoffmanb Construction, based in Portland, Ore., is building the facility.