October 24, 2009 GlobalFoundries invites neighbors for peek at construction
MALTA -- Fab 2, GlobalFoundries' $4.2 billion computer chip factory, started construction four months ago in the Luther Forest Technology Campus.
On Saturday, GlobalFoundries and their general contractor, M+W Zander, opened up the property for the public to see how construction was going.
"It's a good time to show the development that's happening," said Joshua Waller, a spokesman for GlobalFoundries.
Entrance and exit roads are open, the foundation is down and some of Fab 2's steel structure is already up.
"Some of the shear walls and end walls of the building are up, the support structure," Waller said.
Trees had to be cleared to make room for the 222 acres needed to construct the plant, which is expected to generate 1,400 jobs and have an annual payroll of roughly $300 million when the plant comes online in 2012.
Although rain was pouring down, about 1,000 people stopped in between 10 a.m. and noon to walk down and see the construction from a safe distance.
The road leading to the construction site cuts right into their backyard, so Mike and Donna Miller didn't have to travel far to get a peek at the shell structure of Fab 2 on Saturday.
The clearing of the forest and the construction has pushed the Millers to look for another residence outside the park.
"It was supposed to be forever wild behind us. That was community land," said Miller adding that she tried to fight the factory construction when it was first introduced in 2003 and $1.2 billion in state taxpayers' money was used to attract it to the region.
"The state of New York wanted it so bad. There wasn't much we could do," she said.
Miller, 48, and her husband Mike, 51, currently live in the Luther Forest Technology Campus on Bell Flower Road, but said they are going to start looking for a new home once the summer months arrive.
"The activity and traffic are the big reasons why we're moving. It's only going to get worse," Mike said.
The plant, Miller said, is a good venture for the local economy and general area, but is difficult to live by.
"We'd rather see it somewhere where it was already built up, like Albany. This was a rural area and now it's dropped in your backyard," she said.
Others, though, were fully behind the project.
"I think it's great," said Rudy Barth, 68, of Clifton Park, admitting he is biased to the plant's arrival because his son is the project manager with Rifenburg Construction Inc., the company hired to construct all the roads throughout the park.
"I think it's good for the economy. People are going to be working here and need a place to live, and this is a nice place to live," he said.
Bill Smith, 62, has been a resident of Malta for the last 20 years, living off Route 67. Fab 2 is his new neighbor, and aside from the trucks traveling in and out of the park, Smith said the construction is quiet.
"I see the trucks going down the road, but that's not a problem. I'm happy to see it. I think it's good to have a lot of land surrounding a big project like this," he said.
