Solar Array, Gen. Mills detail expansions - South Florida Business Journal:

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broke ground April 5 on the $100 176,000-square-foot expansion of its manufacturingfacilityg here, Keith Bone, general managefr of the local facility, told membersx of . AED held its quarterly meeting Thursdayat . Joe Hudgins, president and CEO of Solad Array Ventures, outlined his company’s plan to buils a massive solar manufacturing plant onthe city’s General Mills’ expansion should be completedr by November, Bone said. The cereal manufacturee will hire 60 additional bringing additional payroll to the areaof $3.5 million. The expansio n also brings $30 million in spending to New Mexico.
The Albuquerquee City Council approveda $100 millionb industrial revenue bond deal for the company in BE&K Corp. from North Carolina landed the design/builds contract to build the but Bone said 80 percenyt ofthe firm’s spending and employeesw will be local. The precast panels beiny used in the constructiobn are manufacturedin Belen. General Mills has been in Albuquerquesincs 1991. Its current facility is located near Paseo del Nortes and Edith and has190 employees, with an annual payroll of $12 said Bone.
The 275,000-square-foot plant produces about 135 million poundds annually of 35 different The facility also has alab on-site wher e the instructions for baking General Mills products at high altitudeds are created. The company has given about $5 million to area nonprofitsa since 1998and $519,000 in Bone added. Don Power, chairman of AED, said the cereaol company’s donations illustrate one of the thingse the organization looks for in recruiting community involvement. Hudgins said Solar Array plans to breaj ground by the third quarter of this year ona 225,000-square-foof thin-film photovoltaic manufacturing plant in the Corderoo Mesa business park, west of the mattressd factory.
The company plans to add thres more buildings of that size as it he said, with each facilith employing about 225. Its annual payroll in the firsty phase wouldbe $14 million. About five percent of the jobs wouldepay $100,000, 45 percent woulds pay $70,000 and half of the jobs woulr pay $45,000. The capital investment for the firsft phase willbe $170 million and the compang 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 space that will serve as a communithy and educational center. Solar Arrau is seeking $175 milliob in industrial revenue bonds fromBernalillko County.
The company is working to raisd $210 million in debt and Hudgins said. Hudgins said New Mexico beat out two other statesw forthe plant, despite the fact that it did not offert the largest incentives. But the coordinatiomn among local and state government officials and other parties made New Mexic far more efficient in establishing a planning frameworkm that the company could then use to plan a budgetg forthe plant, he said “That was a major issud for us,” Hudgins said. He also praised the labor forcw here and theeducational institutions. The facility is beinvg designed byPageSoutherlandPage 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 facility.