Itron to move to Liberty Lake, buy Telect building

Spokane Valley’s largest tech company, Itron Inc., will relocate next year to Liberty Lake, moving into the current offices of Telect Inc.

Itron officials announced Friday they’ll pay roughly $20 million to take over the 200,000-square-foot building Telect currently uses as its headquarters.

Telect will move its offices and technology development group to a nearby 53,000-square-foot building in Liberty Lake it also owns. That’s expected to occur in early 2006.

Itron expects to move from its current building, at 2818 N. Sullivan Road, into the Liberty Lake building in the third quarter of 2006, according to Vice President of Investor Relations Mima Scarpelli.

The Sullivan Road building, with 140,000 square feet, is 22 years old and would cost too much to expand and remodel, Itron CEO LeRoy Nosbaum said in a press release.

Added Scarpelli, “We’re clearly out of office space there. We’re stacking people on top of one another.”

Itron, which makes metering and data-collection software and systems for power and water utilities, has 450 Spokane workers and 2,200 worldwide. The Spokane office’s staff has increased by 25 percent in the past four years.

The move will allow publicly traded Itron to expand space for its product engineering labs, Scarpelli said.

Itron has hired Spokane’s Kiemle and Hagood to sell its current building.

The building Telect is moving to has one current commercial tenant. That company, Itronix Corp., uses the building as its service and configuration center. Itronix – which spun off from Itron in the early 1990s but now has no connection to the company – will move later this year into a new office being built in Spokane Valley.

Itronix recently was acquired by defense technology contractor General Dynamics.

Telect President and CEO Wayne Williams in a press release said the relocation lets his company focus on its “new global strategy which requires a smaller, more innovative footprint.”

The same release stated that Telect is committed to remaining in Liberty Lake. It has about 160 Spokane workers and 880 worldwide.

Scarpelli said Itron expects to close its purchase of the Telect building by the end of the year. It will pay the $20 million partly in cash and partly through financing.

Part of the Sullivan building is leased to Servatron, a fast-growing Spokane-based contract manufacturer. Scarpelli said it’s likely Servatron will continue leasing from whoever buys the building.