Cray Board to decide on expansion project

As was first reported in the Oct. 8, 2010, issue of The Bottom Line, officials with Cray Inc. are discussing the possibility of expanding and relocating its operations in Chippewa Falls to the northwest corner of the intersection of Highway 178 and Chippewa Crossing Boulevard.

The Cray Inc. Board of Directors met this week amid reports that the Wisconsin Department of Commerce has offered the company a $5 million incentive package to help pay for a $36 million, 135,000-square-foot facility that could allow the firm to hire up to 100 more workers.

The Chippewa Falls City Council last month passed an initial resolution regarding Industrial Development Revenue Bond (IRB) Financing for Wangard Partners Inc., the developer of the proposed project.

If the IRB financing is completed, the bond issue will be considered by the city council sometime later this month or in December, according to City of Chippewa Falls Planner Jayson Smith, who added that the city council would also create a Tax Incremental Finance (TIF) district to assist with development of about a 20-30 acre parcel.

There are currently about 240 employees at the Cray Inc. facilities in Chippewa Falls. The company has other operations in St. Paul,MN, Seattle,WA, and Austin,TX.

Cray Inc. is a global leader in supercomputing that enables scientists and engineers to meet existing and future computations on a wide variety of applications. TBL