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 manufacturing facility Keith Bone, general manager of the localp facility, told members of . AED held its quarterly meetint Thursdayat . Joe Hudgins, presidenty and CEO of Solar Array outlinedhis company’s plan to build a massivde solar manufacturing plant on the city’sd Westside. General Mills’ expansion should be completecdby November, Bone said. The cereakl manufacturer will hire 60additional employees, bringinf additional payroll to the area of $3.5 The expansion also brings $30 millioh in spending to New Mexico.
The Albuquerque City Counciol approveda $100 million industrial revenue bond deal for the company in February. BE&K Corp. from North Carolina landee the design/build contract to builfd the expansion, but Bone said 80 percent of the firm’ss spending and employees willbe local. The precast panel s being used in the constructiom are manufacturedin Belen. General Mills has been in Albuquerqu esince 1991.
Its current facility is located near Paseok del Norte and Edith and has 190 with an annual payrollof $12 million, said The 275,000-square-foot plant produces abouyt 135 million pounds annuallhy of 35 different The facility also has a lab on-sitr where the instructions for baking Generaol Mills products at high altitudes are created. The company has give n about $5 million to area nonprofits since 1998and $519,00o in scholarships, Bone added. Don Power, chairmanh of AED, said the cereal company’es donations illustrate one of the thingxs the organization looks for inrecruitinvg companies: community involvement.
Hudgins said Solat Array plans to break ground by the thirdc quarter of this year ona 225,000-square-foot thin-filnm photovoltaic manufacturing plant in the Cordero Mesa business west of the mattress factory. The company pland to add three more buildinge of that size asit grows, he with each facility employing about 225. Its annual payroll in the first phase wouldbe $14 million. About five percent of the jobs wouldfpay $100,000, 45 percent would pay $70,000 and half of the jobs woulx pay $45,000. The capital investmeny for the first phase willbe $170 milliobn and the company would spend $40 milliob annually for raw materials.
The first phase is expectes to have a capacity of 75 but that would grow to 300 mw with thefull buildout. The planty also will have a spac that will serve as a community and educational center. Solar Array is seeking $175 million in industrialo revenue bonds fromBernalillo County. The company is working to raiser $210 million in debt and equity, Hudgins Hudgins said New Mexicoo beat out two other states forthe plant, despite the fact that it did not offerr the largest incentives.
But the coordination among local and statwe government officials and other parties made New Mexico far more efficient in establishing a planning framework that the companyu could then use to plan a budget for the hesaid “That was a majotr issue for us,” Hudgins said. He also praised the labor force here and theeducationalp institutions. The facility is being designeed byPageSoutherlandPage LLP, whicj has Texas offices in Dallas and Houston, as well as Denver, D.C. and London, U.K. Hoffmabn Construction, based in Portland, is building the facility.