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Cross-border connections [The Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield, Mass.](Berkshire Eagle, The (Pittsfield, MA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) May 10--PITTSFIELD -- The Pittsfield Economic Development Authority's board of directors plans to meet later this month with the company that is planning to build a $4.2 billion computer chip factory in Saratoga County, N.Y., interim board chairman William M. Hines Sr. said on Friday. Hines' remarks followed a presentation Friday at Berkshire Community College on "discovering cross-border opportunities" related to the project by representatives of GlobalFoundries, the microchip manufacturing company that plans to build the fabrication facility. The factory, which isn't expected to reach full production until 2012, will be located in the Luther Forest Technology Center in Malta, N.Y., which is some 75 miles northwest of Pittsfield. The plant in Malta is expected to supplement a much larger GlobalFoundries' manufacturing plant in Dresden, Germany. The project is expected to create 1,600 construction jobs during a building phase that will take up to two years to complete, GlobalFoundries spokesman Travis Bullard said. The facility is also expected to create 1,400 new semiconductor manufacturing jobs when it is at full production, and 5,000 other positions. GlobalFoundries is expected to close on the property in Malta this month. An official groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for July. Noting that GlobalFoundries has suppliers located across the United States, Hines said PEDA plans to gauge the firm's interest in having some of those businesses come to the William Stanley Business Park of the Berkshires, the 52-acre currently vacant site that PEDA is charged with redeveloping. "I think it would be a golden opportunity for the suppliers to set up here," Hines said. "Our interests are in understanding and defining what we need to do on our sites to perhaps identify subcontractors or suppliers of this company," said Mayor James M. Ruberto, who is also a PEDA board member, "and how we can best go about ourselves in the planning and recruiting of someone that might be invited to come." Speaking with reporters following the presentation, Bullard said the William Stanley Business Park is the type of area that GlobalFoundries would consider as a location for related businesses. "Hypothetically, I could very well envision the support businesses that we would require to look for a site like that to develop," Bullard said. "We're going to need tool vendors to be very close to our operation. We're going to need supply chain providers to be very close. And I'm sure they'll be looking for the more immediate areas around our campus." The Berkshire Economic Development Corp., which invited GlobalFoundries to speak in Pittsfield, has been touting the computer chip factory as a key to Berkshire County's future economic development. "This one's a game changer," said BEDC board chairman Michael P. Daly before Bullard spoke. Global Foundries presentation was more about the history of the semiconductor industry and the company than it was about potential job opportunities in the Berkshires. Following the presentation, Bullard said that GlobalFoundries is committed to the regional approach touted by the BEDC, but is still working out the logistics. "We probably didn't talk a lot about it today because we're still developing that," Bullard told reporters. "We're just getting ready to start the site development work and prepare the site and break ground this summer. We've got a long road ahead of us. So a lot of that is not determined yet. "But we're looking forward to do things like we did today, to start those dialogues and to start those plans," he said. "How we can work with not just our immediate neighbors, but with everyone in the region." GlobalFoundries was created in March by Advanced Micro Devices of Sunnyvale, Calif., which was looking for a way to outsource the high cost of its microchip production. The company is a joint venture between AMD and Advanced Technology Investment Co., a firm that is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi. To reach Tony Dobrowolski: [email protected], or (413) 496-6224. |