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By Jessica Dyer / Journal Staff Writer Wednesday, March 10th, 2021 at 7:17AM

A major drywall manufacturer will continue its Albuquerque operations for at least 10 more years under a new incentive agreement with Bernalillo County.

The county commission on Tuesday approved issuing $22 million in industrial revenue bonds to support a modernization overhaul at American Gypsum Company’s Northeast Albuquerque plant. The company, not the county, is responsible for repaying the bonds, though the deal provides American Gypsum with $824,091 in tax exemptions over the next decade.

American Gypsum currently produces 430 million square feet of wallboard annually at its 55-acre site near Paseo del Norte and Jefferson, according to county reports.

County officials say they believed the company may have ceased its Albuquerque operations without the incentive.

Peter Bauer, American Gypsum’s vice president of manufacturing, said that without the IRB the company might have chosen to instead invest in upgrading other facilities, potentially dooming the Albuquerque location to closure.

The Albuquerque plant is the company’s smallest operation. It is also over 60 years old; while American Gypsum took it over in 1985, it actually launched in 1960.

“It’s already gone through some upgrades, but it’s 2021 and a lot of the equipment is obsolete and needs to be refurbished and replaced,” Bauer said. “There’s always that possibility of where you’re going to put your money. We’ve got other plants that are of a similar age, and it’s a possibility we could’ve put that money into other locations.

The company also has locations in Colorado, Oklahoma, South Carolina and up the road in Bernalillo.

The IRB agreement obligates American Gypsum to continue Albuquerque operations for at least 10 years, but the $22 million investment in state-of-the-art equipment and other improvements will “extend the useful life” of the facility by more than 50 years, according to county reports.

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The upgrades mean the company will retain all of its 80 existing full-time positions.

It will take about 18 to 24 months to complete the modernization, which will involve the installation of what Bauer called the sophisticated and “robust” equipment used to turn gypsum into construction material.

“We dig (gypsum) out of the ground and we grind it and heat it — essentially we make plaster of paris out of it,” Bauer said. “We add water back into it and make it into the form of a piece of drywall.”

Bernalillo County Commissioner Debbie O’Malley said in a statement that American Gypsum “has been part of the county skyline for more than 35 years” and was due for the upgrade.

“Bernalillo County always works diligently to attract new business, but it’s just as important to back existing companies,” she said.