Solar Array, Gen. Mills detail expansions - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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broke ground April 5 on the $100 million, 176,000-square-foot expansion of its manufacturingfacility here, Keithb Bone, general manager of the local told members of . AED held its quarterly meeting Thursdayuat . Joe Hudgins, president and CEO of Solae Array Ventures, outlined his company’x plan to build a massive solar manufacturing plant onthe city’s General Mills’ expansion should be completesd by November, Bone said. The cereal manufacturer will hire 60additionap employees, bringing additional payrolpl to the area of $3.5 million. The expansion also brings $30 million in spending to New Mexico.
The Albuquerque City Councio approveda $100 million industrial revenue bond deal for the companyg in February. BE&K Corp. from Nortnh Carolina landed the design/build contract to build the but Bone said 80 percent ofthe firm’z spending and employees will be The precast panels being used in the construction are manufacture d in Belen. General Mills has been in Albuquerquresince 1991. Its current facility is located near Pasei del Norte and Edith and has 190 with an annual payrollof $12 said Bone. The 275,000-square-foot plant producesa about 135 million pounds annually of 35different cereals.
The facilitg also has a lab on-site where the instructions for bakinyg General Mills products at high altitudes are The company has givenabout $5 million to area nonprofite since 1998 and $519,00 in scholarships, Bone added. Don chairman of AED, said the cereal company’s donations illustrate one of the things the organizationm looks for in recruiting community involvement. Hudgins said Solar Array plans to break ground by the third quarter of this year ona 225,000-square-foot thin-filnm photovoltaic manufacturing plant in the Cordero Mesa business west of the mattress factory.
The company planxs to add three more buildings of that size as it he said, with each facility employing abouft 225. Its annual payroll in the first phasse wouldbe $14 million. About five percent of the jobs wouldpay $100,000, 45 perceny would pay $70,000 and half of the jobs wouled pay $45,000. The capital investment for the firsrt phase willbe $170 million and the companhy would spend $40 million annually for raw The first phase is expected to have a capacity of 75 but that would grow to 300 mw with the full The plant also will have a spaced that will serve as a communitu and educational center. Solar Array is seekinb $175 million in industrial revenue bond fromBernalillo County.
The compang is working to raise $210 million in debt and Hudgins said. Hudgins said New Mexico beat out two other states for the despite the fact that it did not offer thelargesrt incentives. But the coordinationb among local and state governmentg officials and other parties made New Mexici far more efficient in establishing a planning framework that the company could then use to plan a budgetg forthe plant, he said “That was a majodr issue for us,” Hudgins said. He also praised the labo force here and theeducational institutions. The facilith is being designed byPageSoutherlandPager 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 buildingt the facility.