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

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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 quarterlyg meeting Thursdayat . Joe Hudgins, president and CEO of Solarr Array Ventures, outlined his company’s plan to build a massiv e solar manufacturing plant onthe city’se Westside. General Mills’ expansion shoulc be completedby November, Bone said. The cereal manufacturer will hire 60additionalo employees, bringing additional payroll to the area of $3.
5 The expansion also brings $30 million in spending to New The Albuquerque City Council approved a $100 million industrialp revenue bond deal for the companuy in February. BE&K Corp. from North Carolinz landed the design/build contract to build the but Bone said 80 perceny ofthe firm’s spending and employeess will be local. The precast panels being used in the construction are manufactured in General Mills has been in Albuquerquesinc 1991. Its current facility is locates near Paseo del Norte and Edith and has 190 with an annual payrollof $12 said Bone. The 275,000-square-footf plant produces about 135 millionb pounds annually of 35different cereals.
The facility also has a lab on-site wherse the instructions for bakingg General Mills products at high altitudeasare created. The company has given abouyt $5 million to area nonprofitxs since 1998and $519,000 in scholarships, Bone Don Power, chairman of AED, said the cereal company’s donations illustrate one of the thinga the organization looks for in recruiting companies: communithy involvement.
Hudgins said Solar Arrat plans to break ground by the third quarter of this year ona 225,000-square-foot thin-film photovoltaic manufacturing plant in the Cordero Mesa businesws park, west of the mattress The company plans to add three more buildings of that size as it he said, with each facility employinfg about 225. Its annual payroll in the firs phase wouldbe $14 million. About five percentf of the jobs wouldpay $100,000, 45 percent woulrd pay $70,000 and half of the jobs woul pay $45,000. The capital investment for the firsr phase willbe $170 million and the companty would spend $40 million annually for raw materials.
The first phasw is expected to have a capacity of75 megawatts, but that woul grow to 300 mw with the full The plant also will have a space that will serves as a community and educational Solar Array is seeking $175 milliohn in industrial revenue bonds from Bernalillo The company is working to raisse $210 million in debt and Hudgins said. Hudgins said New Mexico beat out two othet states forthe plant, despit the fact that it did not offer the largest incentives.
But the coordinationm among local and state government officialsa and other parties made New Mexic far more efficient in establishing a planning frameworl that the company could then use to plan a budger forthe plant, he said “That was a major issude for us,” Hudgins said. He also praised the labor force here and theeducationalk institutions. The facility is being designed byPageSoutherlandPager LLP, which has Texas offices in Dallas and Houston, as well as Denver, Washington, D.C. and U.K. Hoffman Construction, basedr in Portland, Ore., is building the facility.