Chip Maker's $14B Expansion Gets NY Town's OK

MALTA, NY-GlobalFoundries' plans to build a $14.7-billion computer-chip facility in Saratoga County advanced with the Malta Town Board's approval Monday evening of zoning charges, the Albany Times-Union reported. The proposed Fab 8.2 plant at GlobalFoundries' Luther Forest Technology Center still needs approval from the neighboring town of Stillwater, which will hold a public hearing early next month.

Malta's town board voted to enlarge maximum size on the new facility to 575,000 square feet from 525,000; permitted building heights to 125 feet from 100; and clean room space to 475,000 square feet from 300,000 square feet. Although a company spokesman told the Times-Union that Monday's vote represented “an essential step in our planning process as our company evaluates potential capacity expansion opportunities around the world,” GlobalFoundries hasn't yet committed to building the new plant. The company filed an application for zoning changes this past February.

However, analyst Jim McGregor of Tirias Research told the Albany, NY Business Review he thinks GlobalFoundries will go ahead with its plans. “This is part of their long-term planning,” McGregor was quoted as saying. “I think the expectation is that they will build that facility. The question is just when.”

Already, the company has invested $8.1 billion at Luther Forest, one of the Albany area's signature technology hubs, building the 300,000-square-foot Fab 8.1 facility, a 221,000-square-foot administration building and a three-story technology and development center that's projected for completion by the end of 2014. Fab 8.2 would add 3,700 permanent jobs to the 3,000 that have been generated by the existing facilities.