The Tullahoma, TN-based technology company, owned by Pasadena, CA-based Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., will provide engineering products and services for the International Space Station, space shuttle and other spaceflight programs performed at Johnson Space Center. Its operations hub will be located at 2224 Bay Area Blvd., owned by Nauru Phosphate Royalties.

Sverdrup was competing against Morristown, NJ-based Honeywell International and Bethesda, MD-based Lockheed Martin Corp., which was first awarded the NASA contract 42 years ago. As part of the bidding process, each company had to notify NASA where it planned to locate its offices, says Eric Anderson, a senior vice president with Transwestern Commercial Services Inc.

Anderson, the building owner's broker, tells GlobeSt.com that Sverdrup signed a contract for 86,014 sf contingent upon receiving the contract from NASA. He has been working with the company since April 2004. Industry sources indicate Lockheed Martin also signed a contract for the Raytheon space with the same contingency. "The building is the only one that offers a large block of contiguous space in immediate proximity," Anderson says.

Built in 1982, the six-story, 143,000-sf building was fully occupied by the Waltham, MA-based Raytheon Co. until last November when it decided to give back 90,000 sf because it lost a NASA contract. It will relinquish the remaining 40,000 sf in May.

According to Anderson, the contract with Sverdrup required that the space be pulled from the market while the company waited to hear whether or not it won the NASA contract. "We had to take a lot of risk," he says. "We turned away another 50,000-sf tenant."

Sverdrup, which will move into its new space before the first quarter ends, also has rights to a building sign as part of the deal, Anderson says. The company was represented in the transaction by Lou Cushman, chairman of Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc.