Flanked by scores of employees and several VIPs, BlueHalo's leadership on Thursday celebrated the official opening of the company's first facility focused on manufacturing.
Located at 10800 Gibson Blvd. SE within the Sandia Science and Technology Park, BlueHalo will manufacture phased array antennas out of the 73,000-square-foot facility. The new facility also provides additional space for research and development and offices, a sensitive compartmented information facility and 37,000 square feet of high-bay manufacturing space.
The company currently employs 300 people across its campus in Sandia Science and Technology Park. The new facility will allow BlueHalo to hire 70 more people. Those new positions will pay an average salary of $90,000, according to the company.
U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) spoke prior to the ribbon cutting. He recounted working on early iterations of directed energy technology at what is now known as the Air Force Research Laboratory, just to the west of the Sandia Science and Technology Park. He praised BlueHalo as the latest private industry partner furthering the foundation put in place by the military and the national labs in New Mexico.
BlueHalo's expansion comes after the company received approval for a $16 million industrial revenue bond and $2.5 million in Local Economic Development Act incentives from the City of Albuquerque and State of New Mexico. The money helped renovate BlueHalo's new manufacturing facility.
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said Thursday that the expansion shows the city has the space available for companies that want to expand into an area already rich with defense industry research and innovation.
Originally, BlueHalo had intended to build a 200,000-square-foot facility at the planned Max Q development. It later withdrew those plans and turned its attention to the Gibson Boulevard location, which is part of the Sandia Science and Technology Park.
Since the change in direction, the company worked with David Hill of NAI SunVista and the architecture firm of Dekker/Perich/Sabatini along with construction consultant David Doyle and Jeff Slopek and Matt Martinez of Klinger Constructors LLC to transform the facility.
Last month, BlueHalo signed a lease to occupy an additional 83,000 square feet at 1300 Eubank Blvd. SE. That puts the company's overall Albuquerque footprint at about 200,000 square feet across three properties in Albuquerque's Sandia Science and Technology Park.
