April 15, 2009 GLOBALFOUNDRIES LAND DEAL CLOSING AT HAND Completion will let foundry begin clearing site for chip factory
LARRY RULISON BUSINESS WRITER
Section: Business, Page: D1
Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2009
ALBANY -- GlobalFoundries Inc. could close on its purchase of 222 acres at Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta this week.
Completion of the deal will pave the way for GlobalFoundries to start initial site clearing for a $4.2 billion computer factory, considered to be the largest corporate investment in state history.
"It could be as early as this week," GlobalFoundries spokesman Travis Bullard said Tuesday. "It's really any day now."
Word of the imminent closing came as Steve Groseclose, the company's director of global environmental, health and safety, participated in an economic policy forum at the Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown Albany that was organized by ARISE, a local community coalition that advocates for the poor. Bullard accompanied him.
Groseclose sat on a panel focused on economic development in the region that also included U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam.
GlobalFoundries' factory, known as Fab 2, will employ 1,400 people. Construction is expected to begin this summer, with full-scale silicon wafer production forecast to begin in 2012.
The project, which is getting $1.2 billion in support from the state, is expected to create thousands of construction jobs and thousands more in employment to support the factory and related development.
"We're building the management teams, and we're staffing up," Groseclose told the forum. "These aren't jobs that will be here today and gone tomorrow."
Groseclose spoke after Tonko, who said the recession that began in December of 2007 will "probably continue for awhile" until the $787 billion federal economic stimulus package starts to take hold.
"We are living within the toughest economic times in decades," Tonko said. "We won't just jump out of the situation instantly."
The forum was organized by ARISE to urge Capital Region leaders to ensure that federal stimulus money and the GlobalFoundries project benefit the inner cities and the region's poor.
There is a lot to be gained by the local economy if GlobalFoundries' plant is a success.
The company was spun off from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., which announced plans for the Malta chip fab in June 2006.
Groseclose was part of the team from AMD that visited Luther Forest and other upstate New York sites three years ago this month.
A lot has changed since then. Because of trends in the semiconductor industry, AMD decided to shed its costly manufacturing assets by creating GlobalFoundries, a joint venture with the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The company now owns AMD's two factories in Dresden, Germany, and soon the site at Luther Forest, which has enough space for up to three fabs.
GlobalFoundries is a foundry that makes chips for other companies. AMD is its first customer, but won't be its only one. Most chip foundries are currently located in Asia and don't have the cutting-edge manufacturing capabilities found in Dresden or what GlobalFoundries is planning for Luther Forest.
"We are here to change the way the semiconductor industry works," Groseclose said. "It is a bold decision."
