Area Development
Mitsubishi Power Systems America Inc. will invest $100 million to build a new wind turbine factory in Fort Smith, Arkansas, according to the Arkansas News. The Florida-headquartered company plans to create approximately 400 new jobs with the project, which is expected to begin construction in early 2011. "After an intensive site selection process conducted during the last 15 months, we concluded that Fort Smith, Arkansas, offers the most attractive site and community support for building and operating our wind turbine plant," says Koji Hasegawa, the company's president and CEO, quoted by the News. Local economic development officials say Mitsubishi Power initially considered as many as 64 other U.S. cities in the early rounds of the selection process; the News reports that the factors that led to the company's choice of Fort Smith included the area's work force and access to transportation. Industrial revenue bonds from the state and local governments will be used to underwrite some of the project's costs, according to the News; no specific dollar amounts were cited.