Days after company executives announced plans to make the massive GlobalFoundries construction project in Malta even larger, Senator Chuck Schumer toured the site to see the progress for himself. Our Matt Hunter has more.

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

MALTA, N.Y. – Fresh off a tour of America's largest construction site, Senator Charles Schumer was impressed with the progress he saw at GlobalFoundries Monday afternoon.

"I get a feeling of exhilaration seeing the building and seeing all those people working when jobs are tough around the United States,” Schumer said.

Just last week, GlobalFoundries executives announced they're expanding the already gargantuan project, with plans to build a second, 221,000 square foot administration building, right next to the future semiconductor fab. It will be an estimated $20 to 30 million on top of the project's $4.6 billion price tag.

"When this first started and a lot of us were pushing this, people said 'That's a whole lot of money,'” Schumer said. “All you have to do is hear about today's announcement and look at the building and you can see it was worth every penny and a whole lot more."

GlobalFoundries will cover the entire cost and will not receive any additional tax incentives for the building, which as of now, is being planned to house 450 additional workers, on top of the roughly 1,200 initially planned for and 300 already working in Malta.

"They're hiring pretty much as fast as they can and they're pretty much on track and it's going to continue to ramp up,” GlobalFoundries Government Relations Director Mike Russo said. “This coming year is a huge year for hiring for GlobalFoundries in the New York region."

According to Russo, the new administration building will be about the size of three Wal-Mart supercenters. That’s enough room for 1,500 workers, about 1,000 more than are currently scheduled to move in. It’s perhaps a sign the company could be planning to expand its future operations in Malta.

"I've told the GlobalFoundries crew here that I will do everything I can to see them grow and prosper, not only here in Luther Forrest, but worldwide,” Senator Schumer said. “This is a New York company if there ever was one and I go to bat for New York companies."

Construction on the new administration building is scheduled to begin in May and wrap up in the summer of 2012.