Turbine manufacturer eyes GM plant

MASSENA — The General Motors plant here will not remain empty much longer, if the D'Arcinoff Group has anything to say about it.

The company, an investment and alternative technology development firm based in Washington, D.C., plans to mass-produce wind turbines at 15 former automotive plants around the country. Two of those plants will be in New York — one in Massena and the other in Syracuse — according to Michael C. Darcy, president and CEO of the D'Arcinoff Group.

"We have already decided. There are the two facilities in New York that we're interested in," Mr. Darcy said.

Mr. Darcy said he estimates the two New York plants could employ up to 12,000 people, working in multiple shifts. He would not provide specific details of how so many jobs would be created or how many of them would be at the Massena plant, which employed about 500 workers when it belonged to GM. If the venture does create 12,000 jobs, the company would be among the largest employers in the state.

"This is not done until it's done," he said. "I'm not interested in getting a whole bunch of people in Massena all excited."

At its height in the 1970s and 1980s, between salaried and non-salaried workers, the GM plant employed about 2,000 people, according to Ronald P. McDougall, president of the Central Trades and Labor Council. It is conceivable, he said, the plant could fit more workers than that.

"A plant that size could fit thousands; it depends on how labor-intensive the work is," Mr. McDougall said. "You can't determine something like that by square footage. Five or six thousand at our plant sounds pretty crowded to me."

If the company does come to Massena, it will not be showing up and setting up shop soon. The deal will take a while to set up, though Mr. Darcy declined to give specifics.

"I don't see this being a two-year project, but I don't see this taking two weeks, either," he said.

GM's real estate division has not been contacted about the proposal, according to corporate spokesman Daniel J. Flores. The company remains focused on working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the Superfund site on the property. If the site is sold, GM will remain responsible for the cleanup unless the buyer agrees to do it, according to GM officials.

According to Mr. Darcy, there have been discussions between GM officials and D'Arcinoff, but the federal bailout complicates possible negotiations.

"GM wasn't sure how this would be done," he said. "Who are we dealing with? Are we dealing with the car companies or the government? We're on very delicate ground here."

Most of the other plants D'Arcinoff plans to use are in the Midwest. Faculty and staff from Clarkson University, Potsdam, who were involved in developing the technology for the turbine project, convinced the company that New York had viable sites as well. The university will continue to have a role in research and development on the turbine project, Mr. Darcy said.

The new technology will allow the company to mass-produce wind turbines using automotive plants and their equipment. General Electric, one of the largest manufacturers of turbines, makes about 3,000 a year.

The D'Arcinoff Group will be able to make 10 times that, Mr. Darcy said.

"The key for us is that the parts and the manufacturing is all automotive," he said.

The company will make use of all the recent layoffs in the industry, as well as its unused equipment.

"It's trained workers being put back to work on machinery they already know how to use," he said.