The facility will include a new customer care center and an expanded application lab and training center as well as a purpose built manufacturing facility. It will also feature a complete calibration center which will house a primary standard dead-weight stack for calibrating force transducers up to 250,000 pounds. The company anticipates moving in April 2005.

The building was acquired last year by CFRI University Avenue, a joint venture of Cabot, Cabot & Forbes and Wilton, CT-based Commonfund Realty Inc. The building was formerly occupied by Jet Spray Corp., but has been vacant reportedly for nearly a year.

Steve Martindale, senior vice president and chief financial officer for Instron, says that, "By being able to renovate and customize the new location, we have the opportunity to create a new, state-of-the-art headquarters." The new location's proximity to the company's current facility was part of its appeal, notes Martindale, so that disruption to the current workforce is minimized.