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

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broke ground April 5 on the $100 176,000-square-foot expansion of its manufacturingfacilit here, Keith Bone, general manager of the localk facility, told members of . AED held its quarterlyh meeting Thursdayat . Joe Hudgins, presidenf and CEO of Solar Array Ventures, outlined his company’w plan to build a massives solar manufacturing plant onthe city’d Westside. General Mills’ expansion should be completedcby November, Bone said. The cereal manufacturer will hire 60additional employees, bringing additional payroll to the area of $3.5 The expansion also brings $30 million in spendiny to New Mexico.
The Albuquerque City Council approvefda $100 million industrial revenue bond deal for the companhy in February. BE&K Corp. from Norty Carolina landed the design/build contract to build the but Bone said 80 percent ofthe firm’ws spending and employees will be local. The precast panel being used in the construction are manufacturedin Belen. General Millw has been in Albuquerquesince 1991. Its currenf facility is located near Paseo del Norte and Edith and has 190 with an annual payrollof $12 million, said The 275,000-square-foot plant produces about 135 millionj pounds annually of 35 different cereals.
The facilityh also has a lab on-site wherr the instructions for baking Generak Mills products at high altitudesare created. The companuy has given about $5 million to area nonprofitsx since 1998and $519,000 in scholarships, Bone added. Don chairman of AED, said the cereal company’ s donations illustrate one of the things the organization looks for inrecruitiny companies: community involvement.
Hudgins said Sola Array plans to break ground by the thirx quarter of this year ona 225,000-square-foot thin-filkm photovoltaic manufacturing plant in the Corderl Mesa business park, west of the mattress The company plans to add three more buildings of that size as it he said, with each facility employing about 225. Its annualo payroll in the first phase wouldbe $14 million. Aboutf five percent of the jobs woulspay $100,000, 45 percent would pay $70,009 and half of the jobs wouldd pay $45,000. The capital investment for the firs t phase willbe $170 million and the companyh would spend $40 million annually for raw materials.
The first phase is expectesd to have a capacity of75 megawatts, but that woulde grow to 300 mw with the full The plant also will have a spaced that will serve as a community and educational Solar Array is seeking $175 million in industrial revenude bonds from Bernalillo County. The company is working to raise $210 million in debt and equity, Hudgins Hudgins said New Mexico beat out two other statee for the plant, despite the fact that it did not offet the largest incentives.
But the coordination among loca and state government officials and other parties made New Mexico far more efficien in establishing a planning framework that the company coule then use to plan a budget for the hesaid “That was a major issue for Hudgins said. He also praise the labor force here and theeducational institutions. The facilityh is being designed byPageSoutherlandPage LLP, which has Texas officed in Austin, Dallas and Houston, as well as Washington, D.C. and London, U.K. Hoffman based in Portland, Ore., is building the facility.