The Malta Town Board officially signed off on a Landowner Association Agreement with the Luther Forest Technology Campus Economic Development Corporation during a Monday, March 16, special meeting, clearing the way for the subdivision and transfer of land there to GlobalFoundries, which plans to build a $4.2 billion microchip manufacturing facility known as Fab 2 on a 222-acre parcel there.
The agreement exists between LFTCEDC and the town, the only two landowners at the moment, but will apply to all future tenants of the campus. It largely stipulates that the LFTCEDC will be responsible for maintenance of common areas in the campus (such as walking trails), and will in turn assess a fee to tenants for the upkeep.
The landowner’s association is also intended to foster a sense of community among all landowners in the campus and provide them with a forum to voice their concerns and opinions.
The board expressed some concern over the possibility of dues being forced upon the town, but the structure of the agreement requires that unanimous vote of landowners would be needed to move any dues forward. The town could set dues caps if it pleased.
You basically have ultimate control over how these dues are set down the road, said Karen Heggen, the town’s planning attorney, to the board.
LFTC is a 1,414-acre site located at the border of Malta and Stillwater. It endeavors to be the home of semiconductor and nanotechnology manufacturers as well as other cutting-edge technology businesses, and GlobalFoundries will be its first tenant.
Clearing of Global’s land is expected to begin on or about April 1, with Fab 2 slated for completed in the summer 2012. Malta issued a soil disturbance permit earlier this month.
The facility is promised to employ 1,465, along with creating thousands of construction jobs. There is room on the parcel for two other facilities similar to Fab 2, but the site plan calls for much of the land to remain as green space.“