We've finally managed to get some people out on the site doing a geotech survey so, hopefully, we'll have a pretty good idea of the kind of foundation work we'll need by the end of April.
The rest of our planning is coming together, so we seem to be in good shape to get the necessary approvals from the State in June. Assuming we get over these hurdles, we should be able to get a shovel in the ground in July! If that's the case, we'll be in a position to start installing equipment in the New Year and we should be open for business by the end of Q1 2010
Monday, April 20, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Can I buy stock in Great Lakes Towers?
The short answer is "maybe."
The long answer is a little more complex. The company does not have publicly traded stock although that is one of our goals in the future. Instead, we sell equity positions in our company to investors by private placement. This is governed by Regulation D of the Securities Act of 1933 which demands that any investor, whether an individual, a corporation or a trust, needs to qualify as an "accredited investor."
This term "accredited investor" is defined under the Act. Individually, you are an accredited investor if you:
If anyone has any questions or needs further details on this matter, please contact me privately using the form on the website with the "investor" radio button checked.
The long answer is a little more complex. The company does not have publicly traded stock although that is one of our goals in the future. Instead, we sell equity positions in our company to investors by private placement. This is governed by Regulation D of the Securities Act of 1933 which demands that any investor, whether an individual, a corporation or a trust, needs to qualify as an "accredited investor."
This term "accredited investor" is defined under the Act. Individually, you are an accredited investor if you:
- Have an individual or joint net worth with your spouse in excess of $1,000,000
- Had an individual income in excess of $200,000 (or $300,000 with your spouse) in each of the last two years.
If anyone has any questions or needs further details on this matter, please contact me privately using the form on the website with the "investor" radio button checked.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Frequently Asked Questions ..... 1-3
I'm sure that this will become an ever- expanding list of questions but, here are the top three so far:
Our timeline is defined by both the construction schedule and raising finance and I'll give you an idea of some of the issues surrounding these things.
Construction is complicated, firstly, because we are building on a brownfield site and, also, because our building has certain structural and size requirements that are affected by the brownfield soil conditions. Therefore, we are obliged to create a brownfield plan and have this approved by the State before we can begin construction. We are hopeful that we can get this approval at the April MEGA Board meeting and this should allow us to break ground sometime in summer 2009. Depending on how much site remediation and foundation work is required, we should then be around nine months away from being ready to begin building towers. As I'll explain in the next paragraph, this dovetails quite nicely with the financing piece.
Raising money is also difficult: we are about three- quarters of the way towards our funding target but, our finances aren't the only issue. As I'm sure you're aware, the main effect of the "credit crunch" has been that banks aren't lending to businesses ..... including windfarm developers. This means that although utilities such as DTE Energy are legally obliged to buy or develop power from renewable sources, many developers are currently struggling to get construction loans and this obviously has a knock-on effect in terms of demand for turbines and towers. Within the industry, this is viewed as a temporary problem and we feel that the wind industry will be back on its growth track by the middle of 2010.
My view is that we will begin hiring towards the end of this year for a few key positions and it will probably be the first quarter of 2010 before we are hiring in significant numbers. That said, the situation is pretty fluid at the moment and we probably won't have a hard timeline until April 2009.
Question 2 has quite a complicated answer and probably doesn't interest everyone, so I'll post separately on that.
- When will Great Lakes Towers start hiring?
- When will Great Lakes Towers begin construction?
- Can I buy stock in Great Lakes Towers?
Our timeline is defined by both the construction schedule and raising finance and I'll give you an idea of some of the issues surrounding these things.
Construction is complicated, firstly, because we are building on a brownfield site and, also, because our building has certain structural and size requirements that are affected by the brownfield soil conditions. Therefore, we are obliged to create a brownfield plan and have this approved by the State before we can begin construction. We are hopeful that we can get this approval at the April MEGA Board meeting and this should allow us to break ground sometime in summer 2009. Depending on how much site remediation and foundation work is required, we should then be around nine months away from being ready to begin building towers. As I'll explain in the next paragraph, this dovetails quite nicely with the financing piece.
Raising money is also difficult: we are about three- quarters of the way towards our funding target but, our finances aren't the only issue. As I'm sure you're aware, the main effect of the "credit crunch" has been that banks aren't lending to businesses ..... including windfarm developers. This means that although utilities such as DTE Energy are legally obliged to buy or develop power from renewable sources, many developers are currently struggling to get construction loans and this obviously has a knock-on effect in terms of demand for turbines and towers. Within the industry, this is viewed as a temporary problem and we feel that the wind industry will be back on its growth track by the middle of 2010.
My view is that we will begin hiring towards the end of this year for a few key positions and it will probably be the first quarter of 2010 before we are hiring in significant numbers. That said, the situation is pretty fluid at the moment and we probably won't have a hard timeline until April 2009.
Question 2 has quite a complicated answer and probably doesn't interest everyone, so I'll post separately on that.
The Purpose of This Blog
As you might well imagine, ever since the MEGA board approved our tax credit and Gov. Granholm announced that our company intends to build its first factory in Monroe, MI, we have been absolutely inundated with emails and phone calls from people wanting to know more about the project.
In fact, in the time that it took me to write the first sentence, I have received another six emails, which brings the total to 502 ..... and counting!
Obviously a lot of people seem to be very interested in what we're doing so I thought that it would be helpful to create this blog so as to keep you all up to speed with our progress and answer any questions that you might have.
I'd like to close this first post by saying that the rest of the Great Lakes Towers team and I are both extremely grateful and quite humbled by the messages of support that we have already received for this project. Thank you all very much for your interest.
In fact, in the time that it took me to write the first sentence, I have received another six emails, which brings the total to 502 ..... and counting!
Obviously a lot of people seem to be very interested in what we're doing so I thought that it would be helpful to create this blog so as to keep you all up to speed with our progress and answer any questions that you might have.
I'd like to close this first post by saying that the rest of the Great Lakes Towers team and I are both extremely grateful and quite humbled by the messages of support that we have already received for this project. Thank you all very much for your interest.
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