MEDINA, MN-Open Systems International Inc., a utility softwareand hardware company, has begun the construction of its new100,000-square-foot corporate headquarters here. The company isspending about $20 million to relocate from about 40,000 squarefeet in Plymouth, MN.

Minneapolis-based Kraus-Anderson is building the facility, whichwill include office, engineering development, staging, warehouse,training and conference space on a 20-acre site. Project ManagerMark Miller tells GlobeSt.com that OSI employees are now squashedinto two main buildings in Plymouth, with an additional trainingbuilding. Just less than 200 will operate from the new Medina site,which will take one year to build. The software firm will own thebuilding.

Plans call for the company to develop the overall site in asustainable manner, Miller says, including prairie restoration,open spaces, walking trails, employee gardens and a geothermalsystem for building heating and cooling. “This is one of the fewfrom-the-ground-up projects planned within the Twin Cities area,”he says. “There are plenty of vacant and underused propertiesaround, but the company didn’t want high-bay office warehouses, andwanted their own parking area and own facility instead ofleasing.”