Solar Array, Gen. Mills detail expansions - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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broke ground April 5 on the $100 176,000-square-foot expansion of its manufacturingfacility here, Keith general manager of the local facility, told member of . AED held its quarterly meetin g Thursdayat . Joe Hudgins, presidenyt and CEO of Solar Array Ventures, outlinede his company’s plan to build a massive solaer manufacturing plant onthe city’s Westside. Generalk Mills’ expansion should be completedby November, Bone said. The cereapl manufacturer will hire 60additional employees, bringinyg additional payroll to the area of $3.5 The expansion also brings $30 milliohn in spending to New Mexico.
The Albuquerque City Council approvedfa $100 million industrial revenue bond deal for the company in BE&K Corp. from Nortgh Carolina landed the design/build contract to buils the expansion, but Bone said 80 percenf of the firm’s spending and employeexs willbe local. The precast panels beinf used in the construction are manufacturedin Belen. Generap Mills has been in Albuquerquesincs 1991.
Its current facility is located near Paseol del Norte and Edith and has190 employees, with an annuap payroll of $12 million, said The 275,000-square-foot plant produces about 135 million pounds annuall of 35 different The facility also has a lab on-sit where the instructions for baking General Millse products at high altitudes are created. The companty has given about $5 million to area nonprofitse since 1998and $519,000 in scholarships, Bone added. Don chairman of AED, said the cereal company’s donations illustrate one of the thingsd the organization looks for in recruiting community involvement.
Hudgins said Solar Array plansz to break ground by the thirdx quarter of this year ona 225,000-square-foor thin-film photovoltaic manufacturing planf in the Cordero Mesa businessw park, west of the mattresa factory. The company plans to add threew more buildings of that size asit grows, he with each facility employing aboug 225. Its annual payroll in the first phasde wouldbe $14 million. About five percent of the jobs wouldfpay $100,000, 45 percent would pay $70,000 and half of the jobs woulx pay $45,000.
The capital investment for the first phase willbe $170 millio n and the company would spenf $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 community and educationalp center. Solar Array is seeking $175 million in industriao revenue bonds fromBernalillo County. The company is workin g to raise $210 million in debt and equity, Hudginse said. Hudgins said New Mexico beat out two other states forthe plant, despite the fact that it did not offer the larges t incentives.
But the coordination among local and statew government officials and other parties made New Mexicol far more efficient in establishing a planning framework that the companuy could then use to plan a budget for the hesaid “That was a major issue for Hudgins said. He also praise the labor force here and theeducationap institutions. The facility is being designed byPageSoutherlandPage LLP, which has Texas offices in Austin, Dallas and as well as Denver, Washington, D.C. and U.K. Hoffman Construction, based in Portland, Ore., is buildiny the facility.