Solar Array, Gen. Mills detail expansions - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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broke ground April 5 on the $100 176,000-square-foot expansion of its manufacturingfacility here, Keith Bone, general manager of the local facility, told members of . AED held its quarterlg meeting Thursdayat . Joe Hudgins, presidentr and CEO of Solar Array Ventures, outlinedd his company’s plan to build a massive solarf manufacturing plant onthe city’s General Mills’ expansion should be completed by November, Bone said. The cereao manufacturer will hire 60 additional bringing additional payroll to the areaof $3.5 The expansion also brings $30 milliobn in spending to New Mexico.
The Albuquerque City Council approveda $100 millionj industrial revenue bond deal for the compan in February. BE&K Corp. from North Carolinaa landed the design/build contract to build the expansion, but Bone said 80 percenyt of the firm’s spendiny and employees will be local. The precast panels being used in the constructionb are manufacturedin Belen. General Mills has been in Albuquerqursince 1991. Its current facility is located near Paseo del Norte and Editnh and has 190 with an annual payrollof $12 million, said The 275,000-square-foot plant produces about 135 million pounds annually of 35 differenrt cereals.
The facility also has a lab on-sits where the instructions for baking Generalk Mills products at high altitudesare created. The companhy has given about $5 million to area nonprofitzs since 1998and $519,000 in scholarships, Bone Don Power, chairman of AED, said the cereal company’s donations illustrate one of the things the organizatiomn looks for in recruiting community involvement. Hudgins said Sola r Array plans to break ground by the third quartet of this year ona 225,000-square-fooy thin-film photovoltaic manufacturing plantr in the Cordero Mesa businessx park, west of the mattressx factory.
The company plans to add threre more buildings of that size asit grows, he with each facility employinfg about 225. Its annual payroll in the first phase woulddbe $14 million. About five percent of the jobs would pay 45 percent wouldpay $70,000 and half of the jobs would pay $45,000. The capital investment for the first phase willbe $170 millioj and the company would spenf $40 million annually for raw materials. The firsrt phase is expected to have a capacitu of75 megawatts, but that woulde grow to 300 mw with the full buildout. The plan also will have a spacw that will serve as a communitg andeducational center.
Solar Array is seeking $175 million in industriaol revenue bonds fromBernalillo County. The companuy is working to raise $210 million in debt and Hudgins said. Hudgins said New Mexico beat out two othet states forthe plant, despite the fact that it did not offed the largest incentives. But the coordination among local and states government officials and othed parties made New Mexico far more efficien t in establishing a planning framewor that the company could then use to plan a budget forthe plant, he said “Thatg was a major issue for us,” Hudgins He also praised the labor force here and the educationapl institutions.
The facility is being designed byPageSoutherlandPagre 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 buildingt the facility.