Chip maker denies Woodstock '94 interest

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MALTA, N.Y., Aug. 5 (UPI) -- GlobalFoundries Inc. denied Sunday it was considering the Woodstock '94 music festival site as a location for a second computer chip plant in New York state.

"We are not looking at the site you mentioned," Kevin Kimball, vice president for global corporate communications, told United Press International. "We're focused on our Fab 8 facility in Malta [N.Y.]."

The Daily Freeman of Kingston, N.Y., reported Saturday on its Web site the Milpitas, Calif., company had approached the owners of the 850-acre Winston Farm property in Saugerties, N.Y., where the 1994 festival was held, about possibly using the site for a second chip-making plant in New York.

The company -- created by the divestiture of the manufacturing side of the Advanced Micro Devices Inc. semiconductor company in 2009 -- operates a nearly completed a $6.9 billion plant, known as Fab 8, on 222 acres 70 miles north of Saugerties in Malta near Saratoga Springs.

The newspaper said the farm owners followed up on GlobalFoundries' approach by contacting the local industrial development agency.

"They've spoken with us twice, and they're considering giving us a proposal" to convert the property, 100 miles north of New York City, into a "high-tech development," Ulster County IDA Chairman David O'Halloran was quoted by the Freeman as saying.

The Web page containing the Saturday article did not work when UPI checked it late Sunday morning and the story did not appear in the newspaper's Sunday printed edition.

UPI was not immediately able to contact O'Halloran or the Winston Farm owners Sunday.

GlobalFoundries said last month it would invest $2.3 billion in additional equipment to increase production at the 222-acre Malta plant, which employs more than 1,300 people.

The investment is fueled by increased customer demand, Vice President and plant General Manager Eric Choh told The (Albany, N.Y.) Business Review.

GlobalFoundries -- whose biggest investor is an arm of the government of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates -- has more than 150 customers, including AMD and IBM Corp.

Woodstock '94 -- commemorating the 25th anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair, known informally as the Woodstock Festival or just Woodstock -- attracted an estimated 350,000 people and such music superstars as Aerosmith, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Sheryl Crow, Bob Dylan, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Santana.

Woodstock promoter Michael Lang said last month he wanted to build a performing arts center for up to 30,000 people on the Winston Farm property.