Solar Array, Gen. Mills detail expansions - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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broke ground April 5 on the $100 176,000-square-foot expansion of its manufacturing facility Keith Bone, general manager of the local told members of . AED held its quarterlhy meeting Thursdayat . Joe Hudgins, president and CEO of Solard Array Ventures, outlined his company’s plan to build a massives 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 million. The expansionh also brings $30 million in spending to New The Albuquerque City Councikl approveda $100 million industrial revenu bond deal for the compan y in February.
BE&K Corp. from North Carolina landed the design/build contract to build the but Bone said 80 percent ofthe firm’s spendin g and employees will be local. The precasrt panels being used in the constructionm are manufacturedin Belen. General Mills has been in Albuquerqueesince 1991. Its current facility is locatedc near Paseo del Norte and Editu and has190 employees, with an annual payrolo of $12 million, said Bone. The 275,000-square-foot plant producesw about 135 million pounds annually of 35differenrt cereals. The facility also has a lab on-site where the instructions for baking General Mills products at high altitudeaare created.
The companyg has given about $5 milliomn to area nonprofits since 1998and $519,00p0 in scholarships, Bone added. Don Power, chairman of AED, said the cerea company’s donations illustrate one of the things the organization looks for inrecruiting companies: community involvement. Hudgin said Solar Array plans to breaki ground by the third quarter of this year ona 225,000-square-foot thin-filjm photovoltaic manufacturing plant in the Cordero Mesa businessa park, west of the mattress factory. The company planws to add three more buildings of that size as it he said, with each facility employing about 225.
Its annuapl payroll in the first phase wouldbe $14 About five percent of the jobs woulde pay $100,000, 45 percent would pay $70,000 and half of the jobs wouldx pay $45,000. The capital investment for the firsty phase willbe $170 million and the companyu would spend $40 million annually for raw materials. The first phass is expected to have a capacity of75 megawatts, but that woulc grow to 300 mw with the full The plant also will have a spacs that will serve as a community and educationa center. Solar Array is seeking $175 million in industriap revenue bonds fromBernalillo County. The company is working to raise $210 million in debt and Hudgins said.
Hudgins said New Mexic beat out two other states forthe plant, despite the fact that it did not offert the largest incentives. But the coordination among localk and state government officials and other parties made New Mexicpo far more efficient in establishinfg a planning framework that the company could then use to plan a budgert forthe plant, he said “That was a majord issue for us,” Hudgins said. He also praise the labor force here and the educational The facility is being designed byPageSoutherlandPage LLP, which has Texasx offices in Austin, Dallas and as well as Denver, Washington, D.C. and U.K. Hoffman Construction, based in Portland, is building the facility.