Intel Moving Ahead With $250 Mil Addition to Its Microchip Plant

HUDSON, MA-In a boost to the state’s manufacturing sector, Intel Corp. is pushing ahead with plans to build a major addition to its microchip plant on Reed Road. Depending on when approvals can be had, the company reportedly hopes to begin construction of the $250 million expansion by the fourth quarter.

Intel spokesman Patrick Ward declined comment on the matter, stating that, “we are going through the permitting process, but we are not making any announcements at this point in time.” Despite that, according to plans filed with the town of Hudson and state regulatory officials, Intel is looking at a 360,000-sf addition to be developed on a 149-acre swath of land. The new facility is part of an $800 million upgrade to the Hudson operations, most of which will be spent on sophisticated equipment to run the new addition. The project will feature a 50,000-sf expansion of the plant’s sophisticated clean room facility.

Epsilon Associates of Maynard has been retained to perform engineering work on the project, but a contractor has not yet been selected. Intel procured the 1.3 million-sf Hudson property in 1998 as part of a deal to settle a long-simmering lawsuit with the erstwhile Digital Equipment Corp. Compaq Computer Inc. now owns DEC, which had built the plant in the 1980s.