There may yet be an aluminum plant in the city's future, though not on the scale of one proposed a year ago, a businessman and a city official said last week.

Former Scuderia Development CEO Eric Shen announced to the Press Dispatch his plans to construct a 500,000-square-foot aluminum remelt and casting house plant that could employ up to 450 people and cost in excess of $120 million. The plant would be a scaled-down version of the megaproject that the Barstow City Council approved last March. That agreement envisioned a 3 million-square-foot aluminum manufacturing complex in an area that was once Sun & Sky golf Course in Lenwood, at a cost of $1.5 billion and with the potential employ more than 2,000.

City Manager Curt Mitchell, who joined Shen in meeting with reporters on Monday, blamed the demise of the larger plant on the high cost of electricity in California. Shen said electricity costs won't impact his latest project, which will be developed by his new corporation called Mojave Aluminum Company.

“This is a much more appropriate fit for this community for now,” Shen said. “Time will tell, but this is a good starting position for the city and Mojave Aluminum Company to build up from.”

The same Lenwood site is targeted for the new project, but it will only use 258 acres. (The first project would have required more than 900 acres.) Shen said there are no plans to purchase more land. Residents on Feb. 19 noticed crews drilling at the site. Shen said the residents were witnessing geotech investigations that included soil studies, a wildlife survey and hydrology work. He said work on a voluntary environmental impact report started in December and should be completed in a couple of months.

Shen said he based his decision to return to Barstow on political and community support.

“What really got my attention at the last public hearing really was the local residents standing up and telling the community this was the right project. It will help the community. They were willing to put up with and be understanding of some of the noise and traffic and disturbances to their lives,” Shen said. “I thought it was very telling of the level of support the community had. With the smaller project, I think we can reduce the impact to all the local residents.”

Shen stressed his willingness to work with the city to work out issues that may arise.

“I want to let them see first hand I’m a man of my word to try to address and mitigate concerns before they become concerns and problems, and overall be a good neighbor,” he said.

Mitchell said city officials are excited about the project and said Shen is “actually doing more than what is required.” Mitchell said Shen will be submitting plans to the planning commission soon and then the project will move forward.

Shen said he has been working on the new enterprise for the past six months, attracting outside financing after realizing the first project wasn’t going to come to fruition.

Shen describes his project timetable as “very aggressive.” He said he hopes to complete construction by March 2017, but admitted that relies on several aggressive and optimistic assumptions.

“No. 1, I meet all entitlement planning requirements by September of 2015," he said. "That assumes that equipment suppliers are able to meet a 14-month deadline or sooner. That assumes that our design process doesn’t last longer than six months. It assumes that I will be able to pull together a design and production team that is willing to come here. Those are the four major hurdles I have to contend with.

“I’m under a tremendous amount of pressure to deliver. Not just by my equity partners, but also to myself, to this community. It’s important I’m able to deliver on what I said I would.”

Shen said at this point, he is focused on entitlements, getting the planning approval and operating designs.

Besides the remelt and cast house, the complex would include two office buildings, a substation, a water treatment plant, storage areas and site lighting. Shen said the intent is to have practical and achievable production capacity of 350,000 to 380,000 metric tons of aluminum billet a year.

Extrusion billet is an aluminum log that is produced in many different diameters and cut to various lengths. The billet is heated to a plastic state and hydraulically forced through a die to obtain the desired shape. Extrusion billet is used in the manufacturing of residential and commercial windows, shower enclosures, computer heat sinks and decorative trim.

Shen expects the plant to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week with probably six rotating shifts. He said the design is going to focus on being considerate of noise and light impacts with respect to the neighbors.

While 50 percent of the aluminum material being used at that plant will be recycled material, Shen stressed it’s not a recycling plant.

“The aluminum that arrives on this site will be processed, bundled, uniformed and consistent,” he said. “We are not going to let people drive in their pickup trucks and dump scrap metal. We also will not be melting painted metal. From an environmental concern, we won’t be melting or burning any sort of burials or contaminants, other than aluminum alloys and aluminum.”

Shen stressed that the jobs Mojave Aluminum Company will create are not low-wage jobs.

“These are career path-driven, family-supporting, wage-earning jobs,” he said. “We want them to grow their families, support their families, take care of their families and pass their experience down to more junior associates so they will be able to train down as well. We want to foster that mind-set, and that duty, if you will, of fostering future growth.”

While the high-cost of electricity doomed the previous aluminum plant project, Shen said this facility doesn’t have a rolling mill component.

“The rolling mill was what consumed the bulk of the electricity,” he said. “That process isn’t economically feasible in Southern California. Not from a labor perspective, but from utility cost perspective.”

Water was another concern of the first project. But Shen said of all the other possible uses for this land, his project will use the least amount of water. He said the process at this plant will not consume water. The only water loss will be through evaporation.

Natural gas will be the primary fuel used during the manufacturing process, according to Shen. He said all local, state and federal air quality requirements will be met. He said air contamination should be a non-issue.