Workers at Andersen Windows and Doors' Bayport plant assemble double hung windows in May 2009. Mark Zdechlik | MPR News 2009

Minnesota-based Andersen Corp. has announced a $45 million expansion that will create 300 jobs in the state.

Andersen, the largest window and door manufacturer in the country, will add equipment and expand facilities in Cottage Grove and North Branch. The announcement comes on the heels of an $18 million expansion at the company's Bayport, Minn., facility, which accounts for about 100 of the new jobs.

"These investments are for areas of our business that have seen unprecedented growth and just have allowed us to reach into new markets and build our market share across the company," Andersen CEO and President Jay Lund said.

The company has just over 10,000 employees across the country, about a third of which are based in the Upper Midwest. The 300 jobs will be added throughout this and next year at the three facilities.

Andersen is expanding operations that both supply windows and doors for home renovation and new housing construction. Construction on the 125,000-square-foot expansion at the Cottage Grove facility, where workers build Renewal by Andersen products, will begin this spring.

Components for double hung windows roll off an assembley line at Andersen's Bayport, Minn., plant in May 2009. Mark Zdechlik | MPR News 2009

Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Bayport, Lund explained that the company is trying to meet a growing demand for its more economical line of windows and doors.

"The housing market has been recovering over the last two to three years, and has come back substantially from where it bottomed out during that 2010-2011 timeline, and we've benefited from that," Lund said.

The recent expansions are supported by more than $3 million in state funding, including grants and forgivable loans. The company received $1.4 million from the Minnesota Job Creation Fund and a $500,000 forgivable loan from the Minnesota Investment Fund for the Cottage Grove and North Branch facilities, Lund said. Andersen also received a $625,000 job creation fund grant and $500,000 from the state investment fund for its Bayport expansion.

State government's support of the company made a difference in the company's decision to expand, Lund said.

"Quite frankly, with the substantial investments we're making in the business as we emerge from what was a very difficult housing market recession, the financial support we've received from the state has been very beneficial," Lund said.

Gov. Mark Dayton praised Andersen for its success. He said the company's expansion highlights the importance of keeping state economic development programs well-funded.

"Let's keep building on this success. We want more Andersen window expansions here in Minnesota, and other companies all over our state," Dayton said. "It's very, very exciting that they've weathered a very serious recession in their industry and are coming back strong. Minnesotans are going to have jobs as a result, and that's what it's all about. We want to make this a better state."

But it's unclear how those economic development programs will fare this legislative session. House Republicans have proposed cutting spending in the jobs and economic development area of the budget by more than $101 million. During a committee hearing last month, House Ways and Means Chair Jim Knoblach said the proposed reduction makes sense.

"The economy is better. Unemployment is down. I don't know that we need to be spending the kind of money that we perhaps needed to spend here a few years ago, given the state of the economy," said Knoblach, R-St. Cloud. "Looking at that, it seemed to me that this was an amount of money that would work for the departments that are in here and for our state."

With about six weeks left in the 2015 session, Democrats are warning against cuts to the programs they pumped up to more than $430 million two years ago.

State Dan Schoen, who attended the Andersen Corp. ceremony, said state incentives have a huge economic payback and keep Minnesota competitive. He pointed to Wisconsin's Republican-led government as an example of what Minnesota doesn't want to do.

"We literally can step outside the back of the plant and look across the river at a state that has some of the most dismal job numbers in the region, in the country, and Minnesota is leading," said Schoen, DFL-Cottage Grove. "I don't know what else to say about that, but the facts don't lie."