It”™s take two for solar manufacturing in East Fishkill.
Chinese solar technology company Linuo Solar Group Co. said on Sept. 23 it bought IBM Corp.”™s former East Fishkill campus and would invest $100 million there with hopes of adding 1,000 jobs over the next three to five years.
The announcement comes just five months after photovoltaic panel-maker SpectraWatt shuttered its East Fishkill facilities, where it had leased space from IBM since May 2010 after making an $80 million investment of its own.
“We”™re going to need up to 1,000 people to help us build this dream,” Beven Zhang, Linuo”™s director of international development, said in an announcement at Marist College”™s historic Cornell Boathouse in Poughkeepsie.
The campus will be Linuo”™s first manufacturing facility in the U.S. Currently, the 17-year-old manufacturer is worth more than $1.3 billion and has 13,000 employees worldwide.
The effort to bring Linuo to the Hudson Valley involved cooperation between various federal, state, county and local government agencies, and the U.S. State Department and its Chinese counterpart.
“There were incredible obstacles to overcome. I would never have guessed the obstacles that would occur,” said Vincent Cozzolino, president and CEO of The Solar Energy Consortium (TSEC), an organization acknowledged by Zhang as playing a major role in convincing Linuo to locate in East Fishkill.
Cozzolino recalled the words of recently-deceased TSEC board member Richard O”™Beirne. “He said, ”˜We don”™t need to outsource ”“ we can in-source.”™”
Linuo”™s plan calls for the creation of 150 permanent jobs by the end of 2012, with additional jobs being incorporated as solar panel production begins in early 2013.
The company bought the 160-acre campus, which contains nearly 1 million square feet of former IBM facilities, for $4.5 million.
The company is eligible for up to $6 million in Excelsior tax credits from Empire State Development, which are contingent upon Linuo adding a certain number of jobs by specific deadlines.
“Today is a very exciting and important day,” Zhang said. “We spent so many days and nights and overcame so many hurdles.”
Zhang and Linuo executives were joined at the announcement by representatives of the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council, Empire State Development, Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp., The Solar Energy Consortium and the Dutchess County Economic Development Corp., among other organizations.
Check the October 3 edition of the Westchester County Business Journal for more on the Linuo announcement and purchase.
