MOSES LAKE - Crews are making good progress on AstaReal Technologies' Moses Lake manufacturing plant, company officials said recently.

Most of the building's steel frame is up and wall panels should be going in soon, according to AstaReal Technologies president Michael Ouellette. The building will be more than 50,000 square feet when completed.

"It's mainly one floor, but there will be room on the second floor for office space and lab space," he said Monday.

With construction going smoothly, the company still anticipates the plant being completed within their previously stated timeline, Ouellette said.

When AstaReal, the manufacturing subsidiary of Japanese pharmaceutical company Fuji Chemical Industry, announced their move to Grant County earlier this year, company officials said they anticipated construction of the plant to be completed by next July.

Operations at the time were expected to begin in the third quarter of 2014, according to a previous Columbia Basin Herald article.

Ouellette said operations at the plant will actually begin in the second quarter of next year. The plant will probably be considered fully operational in the third quarter, he said.

According to the previous Columbia Basin Herald article, the plant will produce natural astaxanthin, an anti-inflammatory agent.

Ouellette said hiring for some positions has already begun. Most management-level employees will begin work before the end of this year, he said.

Hiring for other positions will begin early next year, Ouellette said.

Company officials previously stated AstaReal's presence in Moses Lake would provide about 45 new jobs for the area.