Rizzo, which started with 90 employees in 24,000 sf in Natick,now has more than 200 people on staff. That growth is due in largepart to the major assignments it has with the $14 billion Big Digpublic construction project and a contract to engineer the700,000-sf Massachusetts Convention Center. Over the years,Nahigian and Maietta surveyed more than 400 buildings and pursuedseveral build-to-suit options before narrowing the possibilitiesdown to two properties.

Nahigian says the length of the search was due to efforts toaccommodate the tenant's continually growing space requirements,and a tight labor market that forced Rizzo to weigh the potentialconsequences of each option. "If you moved three miles in the wrongdirection, you could lose 30 employees," Nahigian says. "We had tofind a location that worked for everybody, and we were operating ina very tight box."

Now known as Triangle Business Park, the 375,000-sf property isbeing restored by Rosewood Development Co. of Marlborough. Theturn-of-the-century complex had been abandoned for years, itsdisrepair adding to a sense of blight in the community's downtownarea. Rizzo is Triangle's first tenant.