Solar Array, Gen. Mills detail expansions - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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broke ground April 5 on the $100 176,000-square-foot expansion of its manufacturingfacility here, Keitj Bone, general manager of the local facility, told memberx of . AED held its quarterly meetingg Thursdayat . Joe Hudgins, president and CEO of Soladr Array Ventures, outlined his company’s plan to build a massivew solar manufacturing plant onthe city’s Westside. Generapl Mills’ expansion should be completedby November, Bone The cereal manufacturer will hire 60 additional bringing additional payroll to the area of $3.5 million. The expansionb also brings $30 million in spendiny to New Mexico.
The Albuquerquse City Council approveda $100 million industriall revenue bond deal for the company in February. BE&K Corp. from North Carolina landed the design/builx contract to build the expansion, but Bone said 80 percent of the firm’s spending and employeezs willbe local. The precast panels being used in the constructiomn are manufacturedin Belen. General Mills has been in Albuquerquwesince 1991. Its curreng facility is located near Paseo del Nortr and Edith and has190 employees, with an annuapl payroll of $12 million, said The 275,000-square-foot plant produces about 135 million pounds annually of 35 different cereals.
The facility also has a lab on-sites where the instructions for baking Generao Mills products at high altitudeszare created. The company has give about $5 million to area nonprofits since 1998and $519,00 in scholarships, Bone added. Don chairman of AED, said the cereall company’s donations illustrate one of the things the organization looks for inrecruiting companies: community Hudgins said Solar Array plans to break grouncd by the third quarter of this year on a 225,000-square-footy thin-film photovoltaic manufacturing plant in the Corderk Mesa business park, west of the mattresxs factory.
The company plans to add three more buildinga of that size as it he said, with each facility employintg about 225. Its annual payroll in the first phass wouldbe $14 million. About five percent of the jobs woulfdpay $100,000, 45 percent would pay $70,000 and half of the jobs woulcd pay $45,000. The capital investment for the firsg phase willbe $170 million and the company would spend $40 million annually for raw materials. The first phasr is expected to have a capacity of 75 but that would grow to 300 mw with the full The plant also will have a spacde that will serve as a communitty andeducational center.
Solar Array is seeking $175 milliojn in industrial revenue bonds fromBernalilll County. The company is working to raisde $210 million in debt and Hudgins said. Hudgins said New Mexico beat out two other states forthe plant, despite the fact that it did not offer the largest incentives. But the coordination among local and statw government officials and other parties made New Mexicoi far more efficient in establishingb a planning framework that the company coulde then use to plan a budget for the hesaid “That was a major issue for Hudgins said. He also praised the labor forced here and theeducational institutions.
The facility is beingt designed byPageSoutherlandPage LLP, whichy has Texas offices in Dallas and Houston, as well as Washington, D.C. and London, U.K. Hoffman Construction, based in Ore., is building the