Business Facilities - May 2008 - (Page 13)

January 2006 IM Flash Technologies LLC is formed. The joint venture is tasked with being the exclusive producer of NAND flash memory for the two leading semiconductor companies. March 2006 After reaching an agreement between IM Flash and the state, county, and local governments, the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development approves an Economic Development Tax Incentive Fund rebate for the company to locate its headquarters on the site of the former Micron facility in Lehi. The rebate will not exceed a maximum of 30% of new state revenues over five years, and the company commits to keeping the operation in Utah for a minimum of 10 years. over five years. In addition, a portion of the local property taxes paid by the company would be used to fund infrastructure improvements needed to accommodate the plant. City officials in Lehi had already opted to sacrifice property tax revenue in order to see Micron build its facility in 1995. The sacrificed revenue, which was used for improvements ranging from water wells and new roads to power lines and substation facilities, totaled close to $80 million, according to the original with them. They’re very interested in making their tools run well, and that benefits us. But, they have to have a pretty sizable team in the local area to do that. BF: What have been the greatest accomplishments since the Intel/Micron joint venture was formed? Matthews: From a facility perspective, [there have been some] pretty amazing accomplishments with regard to utilizing areas of the buildings for the fabrication process that were not originally designed to house fabricating processes. There was originally going to be quite a bit of empty space that was going to be used for storage and things that don’t make money for the company. We took those spaces and we put fabrication equipment in there. It was an enormous challenge to enable those spaces to house fabrication equipment, which includes NAND die package budget. The local jurisdictions renegotiated these property tax incentives 11 years later with IM Flash. construction of a clean room, drains, and utilities going to the tools. That was a significant challenge and I’d have to say a very enormous success. That’s one. Another was that the construction schedule was very aggressive for a U.S. site. From that perspective, everything that was completed here was pretty amazing, and it was done with basically not enough resources … We were very short in the United States on specific trades during this time frame, so we had to make modifications to our plan. We had to be really dynamic and flexible to get the team focused and the trades focused on the right projects in order to still succeed and achieve our dates that we had planned for initial silicon storage and ramp. And after that, what was originally viewed as a very aggressive ramp plan for both of our parent companies, the team achieved that ramp at a faster rate than was “And today it sits as about a $100 million investment and commitment on the part of [local and county governments] by way of property tax to help reimburse Micron and IM Flash for the investment that they made in the community,” Davidson says. In exchange for all these incentives, the company committed to keeping its operations in Utah for at least 10 years, and to pay salaries that average above 200% of the county median wage. The company expected to create 1,850 jobs that pay expected. … We believe we may have actually achieved the fastest ramp in the world at this point in time. So, those were pretty significant achievements. The last achievement: we always take the best [ideas] of both of our parent [companies] and bring them here and implement them, and both of our parent [companies] have amazing strengths that are complementary to one another. Intel has always been famous for its ability to take a process from a research and development stage to a production stage, and then also transfer that same process to another facility, … and not miss a beat in terms of not seeing a decrease in yield. There’s an enormous discipline and cost associated with that from the Intel perspective, and we were able to achieve the same goal at a very low cost. From a non-facility perspective, that was an amazing achievement. PHOTO CREDIT: IM FLASH TECHNOLOGIES BUSINESS FACILITIES 13

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Business Facilities - May 2008 Contents First Word Snapshots The UK's Most Lucrative Locations, Pound for Pound Economic Development in a Flash Corporate Moves: Massachusetts Florida: A Ripe Climate for Innovation Innovating Big in Rhode IIsland Retail Set to Ride Out a Recession Corporate Moves: New Jersey South Carolina: A Sweet Spot in the Southeast Endless Opportunities in North Carolina Economic Awakening in the Mohawk Valley Metro Spotlight: Alexandria, LA Where Call Centers Call Home Texas Receives First Business Facilities State of the Year Award Advertiser Index Inside Livexchange

Business Facilities - May 2008

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