Daines to expand in Liberty Lake

Spokane technology entrepreneur Bernard Daines has purchased two commercial buildings in Liberty Lake and will tear them down to expand a data center he operates next door to them.

Daines said on Friday he paid an undisclosed amount to Robotic Process Systems for the two buildings, near the corner of Mission Avenue and Molter Road in Liberty Lake.

The two buildings have been used by Robotic Process Systems since the company moved from California to Liberty Lake in 1993.

RPS produces automated soldering systems for large companies.

The two buildings are a short distance from Daines’ Liberty Lake Internet Portal building.

Once he has the two RPS buildings torn down, Daines said he plans to build a 45,000-square-foot addition to the portal building.

That two-story building houses about a dozen businesses, including Liberty Lake Internet Exchange, also owned by Daines. Liberty Lake Internet Exchange provides a variety of business services, including a data center and Web hosting.

Daines said he’s hoping Robotic Process Systems can vacate the buildings within three months.

Jess Baker, president and co-owner of RPS, said the company plans to relocate to a single building in the Spokane Industrial Park.

“It will be more cost-effective to have one building instead of two,” Baker said. The company has 13 Liberty Lake workers, with some in the engineering and administrative office, the rest in the nearby manufacturing building.

Baker said his company also recently gained additional support from Tyco International Ltd., which now finds customers for Robotic Process Systems. Companies using RPS machines include contractors for automakers and airlines, he said.

“In effect, Tyco is now our distributor,” Baker said. At one time, Tyco considered buying RPS, but that option is not now being considered, said Baker.

Launched five years ago, the Liberty Lake Internet Portal is growing in both the number of tenants and the range of services being offered to companies, said Daines.

Earlier this year, the data-center operation announced the goal of becoming a global computer processing cluster. The goal would be to group high-end computers at the Liberty Lake building and lease them to companies that need to crunch large amounts of data.

That project forms some of the basis for the expansion, said Octavio Morales, marketing director for Liberty Lake Internet Exchange. “It’s not the only factor. We are growing according to plan, and that includes an expansion in the next year,” he said.

Roughly 30,000 square feet of the addition will be devoted to expanded data operations, said Daines. The other 15,000 square feet will be for office space for tenants.

Morales said the company hasn’t yet chosen a construction company to handle the project.