The general contractor was Gavic Construction of Hudson, WI. The project cost is about $12 million, says Jerry Ruzicka, president of Starkey Labs.

The new center is the latest addition to the Starkey headquarters business campus in Eden Prairie, a 40-acre site with space totaling about 350,000 sf of building space. The facility is currently staffed with 350 people with initial capacity of 500, Starkey officials say. Additional warehouse space can be converted to employee needs bringing the total facility capacity to more than 700.

The facility is designed to accommodate large group educational meetings. The main auditorium seats about 400 and is equipped with multi-media, video conferencing, video broadcasting and translation booths. The auditorium can be divided into two rooms each with a capacity of 200. In addition to the large meeting facilities, the center contains four conference rooms, a large reception area, employee dining facilities and a patio.