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WESTMINSTER, MD-Ground has broken on a new manufacturing building for General Dynamics Robotic Systems. The 150,000-sf property will be located in the 63-acre Westminster Technology Park, where the company already occupies space.

Conowego Contractors will develop the building, investing $9 million in the project, and GDRS will invest $2 million and lease the property from Conowego when it reaches completion. The new building will allow the company to consolidate operations from several leased facilities in the area and to use its existing space in the park for an advanced engineering center. According to the 2004 annual report of General Dynamics Corp., the parent of GDRS, the company currently has about 100,000 sf of leased office and plant space here.

With regard to financing, state and local authorities also played a role, with the State of Maryland and Carroll County supplying a total of nearly $1 million in incentives to help facilitate the project. Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development secretary Aris Melissaratos says, "This venture not only adds more than 100 new jobs in Carroll County, it also expands Maryland's manufacturing and technology base."