GlobalFoundries is not done building in the Malta area, and area leaders couldn’t be happier about it. The semiconductor manufacturer announce on Tuesday, Jan. 8, plans for a new global research and development facility at its Fab 8 campus in the Luther Forest Technology Campus. The “Technology Development Center” will be in addition to the existing Fab 8 chip plant. The TDC will feature more than a 500,000 square feet of flexible space to support a range of technology development and manufacturing activities, including cleanroom and laboratory space. The project is expected to cost nearly $2 billion, bringing the total money spent on the Fab 8 campus to more than $8 billion. GlobalFoundries expects construction to begin early this year and for the facility to be completed in late 2014. The company claimed its Fab 8 project has created approximately 2,000 new direct jobs and expects the TDC will add another 1,000 to that figure. Saratoga County Chamber President Todd Shimkus is excited by the projected numbers and what it will mean to the local economy. “To say we’re excited is an understatement,” said Shimkus. “Since GlobalFoundries started building and populating we’ve seen an increase of over $200 million in manufacturing payroll in Saratoga County.” Shimkus said overall, private sector payroll has increased by more than 6 percent while population has increased 25 percent since the Fab 8 project got underway, and attributed much of that is from job creation at the chip manufacturing plant. Those people are settling nearby, he added, and will hopefully spend their paychecks in Saratoga County. “In the last 12 months the sale of new and existing homes has gone up 12 percent,” Shimkus said. Malta Supervisor Paul Sausville also hailed the announcement as good news, even though he’s been vocal about the need to maintain small-town character in the face of an explosion of development. He said this is good for the future of the area, though. `The expansion of GlobalFoundries is great news for Malta, Saratoga County and the Capital Region,” said Sausville. “The additional 1,000 jobs projected once the expansion is complete are high-tech, 21st century jobs, the very kind that will hold our children and grandchildren to our home town.` Gov. Andrew Cuomo also weighed in on the announcement. Though the original GlobalFoundries project in Malta was built along with hundreds of millions in state cash and tax breaks, the new project will not receive public backing. “This significant expansion demonstrates that the investments we have made in nanotechnology research across New York State are producing the intended return— the creation of high-paying jobs and generation of economic growth that is essential to rebuilding our state,” Cuomo said in a statement. “New York has become the world’s hub for advanced semiconductor research and now, the Technology Development Center will further help ensure the innovations developed in New York, in collaboration with our research institutions, are manufactured in New York.”