USA - Local firm helps Indian company build wind-turbine plant

A St. Cloud business is overseeing construction of the first wind-turbine blade plant that an Indian company is building in the United States. Miller Architects & Builders is starting site work this month on the 36-acre campus in Pipestone, in south-western Minnesota. Suzlon Energy Limited of Pune, India, the world's sixth-largest wind-turbine supplier, is building the plant. A 130,000-square-foot manufacturing plant will be the first of five buildings. It could open as early as April.

The $14 million project is among the largest handled by Miller, a multi-generation family business known for retail and commercial projects. The company has helped Suzlon with land procurement, reduced-tax zone applications and architectural plans in the past 14 months. As many as 150 workers could be on site at the peak of construction, chief executive Dan Miller said. "I think this will be a huge boost for not only the Pipestone area but the entire region," he said. The blade and nose cone manufacturing plant is expected to employ about 100 people. The site will also have a 60,000-square-foot storage building, an office building, an employee building and a 25,000-square-foot service and maintenance building.

Suzlon supplied turbines for a Pipestone-area wind energy project in 2003. Its North American customers reach from south Texas to Canada. The Pipestone site has Job Opportunity Building Zone status, meaning non-retail businesses can qualify for reduced state and local taxes. The 126-year-old Miller business has handled a variety of Central Minnesota projects, including Sportsman's Warehouse, the Larson Allen building in Waite Park, the St. Cloud Medical Group clinic under construction in south St. Cloud and most of the Good Shepherd campus in Sauk Rapids