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

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broke ground April 5 on the $100 176,000-square-foot expansion of its manufacturinyfacility here, Keith Bone, general manager of the locap facility, told members of . AED held its quarterlu meeting Thursdayat . Joe Hudgins, president and CEO of Solarf Array Ventures, outlined his company’z plan to build a massivw solar manufacturing plant onthe city’s General Mills’ expansion should be completed by Bone said. The cereal manufacturer will hire 60 additional bringing additional payroll to the areaof $3.5 The expansion also brings $30 million in spendinh to New Mexico.
The Albuquerque City Council approvecda $100 million industrial revenued bond deal for the companyh in February. BE&K Corp. from North Carolinqa landed the design/build contract to buildx the expansion, but Bone said 80 percengt of the firm’s spending and employeex will be local. The precast panels being used in the constructiobn are manufacturedin Belen. General Millxs has been in Albuquerquesince 1991. Its currenty facility is located near Paseoo del Norte and Edity and has 190 with an annual payrollof $12 million, said Bone. The 275,000-square-foo t plant produces about 135 million pounds annually of 35different cereals.
The facility also has a lab on-site where the instructions for bakingb General Mills products at high altitudes are The company has givenabougt $5 million to area nonprofits sincd 1998 and $519,000 in Bone added. Don Power, chairman of AED, said the cerea company’s donations illustrate one of the thingx the organization looks for inrecruitintg companies: community involvement. Hudginz said Solar Array plans to break ground by the third quarter of this year ona 225,000-square-footg thin-film photovoltaic manufacturing plan t in the Cordero Mesa business west of the mattress factory.
The company plans to add three more buildings of that size asit grows, he with each facility employing about 225. Its annual payroll in the firstt phase wouldbe $14 million. Abourt five percent of the jobs would pay 45 percent wouldpay $70,000 and half of the jobs woulx pay $45,000. The capital investment for the firsr phase willbe $170 million and the compan would spend $40 millioj annually for raw materials. The firstt 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 servee as a community andeducational center. Solar Array is seeking $175 million in industrial revenue bonds fromBernalillo County.
The company is working to rais $210 million in debt and equity, Hudgins said. Hudginsw said New Mexico beat out two othe states forthe plant, despite the fact that it did not offetr the largest incentives. But the coordination among locap and state government officials and otheer parties made New Mexico far more efficientt in establishing a planning frameworo that the company could then use to plan a budgeg forthe plant, he said “That was a majodr issue for us,” Hudgins said. He also praised the labor forcw here and theeducational institutions.
The facility is being designex byPageSoutherlandPage LLP, which has Texas offices in Dallas and Houston, as well as Denver, Washington, D.C. and U.K. Hoffman Construction, based in Portland, Ore., is buildintg the facility.