Expanding CNT needs bigger digs
New headquarters to rise on Plymouth site
amcity.com
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Henry Breimhurst Staff Reporter
Successful new product lines have caused Computer Network Technologies Corp. (CNT) to grow out of its space. The company is building a five-story, 190,000-square-foot headquarters in Plymouth, just miles from its current offices.
"It has two big benefits," said CNT chief financial officer Greg Barnum. "It allows us to bring the company together under one roof. Second, it allows us to grow." Earlier growth had led CNT to move into two separate facilities in Plymouth and Maple Grove. The new facility will have both offices and some light industrial space where products will be assembled.
The building is being developed by Minnetonka-based Opus Corp. on a 26-acre parcel of Opus' Bass Creek Business Park. David Menke, director of real estate development for Opus, said that ground should be broken within weeks, with work slated for completion next October. "I think it is one of the larger build-to-suit office projects this year," he said. Cost of the project was not disclosed.
The development demonstrates a resurgence on the part of CNT. The company had watched revenue plateau in the early- and mid-1990s as its single market began to dry up. CNT's core business was products that allowed mainframe computers to send information to pieces of equipment, such as printers or other computers, that were some distance away.
Thomas Hudson came to the company in 1996 as president and CEO and started additional product lines that were used in the network storage and Web markets.
"I think that the strategy is starting to take hold here, and the company is starting to hit its stride in top-line and bottom-line growth," said Michael Latimore, an analyst with Minneapolis-based John G. Kinnard & Co. The new product lines have added to revenue, and "through the efforts of their CFO, they have reined in expenses. Last quarter really demonstrated their new strategy."
In the second quarter of 1998, ended June 30, the company had revenue of $33.5 million and earnings of $1.3 million; in the same period last year, the company lost $1.8 million on revenue of $20.7 million.
While the new building will allow some room for growth, CNT has planned ahead of that, said Barnum. CNT has an option to build another 60,000-square-foot addition to the new building, and has rights to the 6.5-acre parcel next to the current site. "This should take care of our needs for the foreseeable future," he said.
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