A new commercial complex will add 59,000 square feet of office space to the Manhattan market, and Kansas State University officials plan to fill the building with new companies that create jobs.

Construction of the second building to go into the $15.8 million Kansas State University Office Park will begin in July, with expectations that it will open by July 2018, said Greg Lohrentz, KSU Foundation senior vice president of operations and finance. Four buildings ultimately will be located on the 14-acre tract, which is located near the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, a federal lab where animals diseases will be studied.

K-State Office Park - Phase II from KSU Foundation on Vimeo.

"The KSU Office Park is a total of 240,000 square feet when it’s fully built out," Lohrentz said. "We plan on anywhere from 1,000 to 1,200 new jobs in the Manhattan region, from companies that strengthen Kansas State University, as well as complement the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility."

The first building in the complex, at 1800 Kimball Ave., was completed in October 2015, and currently houses the KSU Foundation on the top two floors. The ground floor was leased within six months and is home to Manhattan branches of companies like Garmin International.

The phase II building already is 19 percent filled with lease commitments, including a restaurant, the Bluestem Grill, which is an extension of Bluestem Bistro located in Aggieville.

"Our goal is to bring in 35 new companies and partners into Manhattan with this facility," Lohrentz said. "I think it’s important to note for Kansas State University and even the vote of confidence with the city commission with the economic development grant, that this will generate $93 million of economic impact to the city of Manhattan over a 20-year period. The beautiful thing of this is those are the numbers calculated by the city staff. They almost sound like it’s just made up if it came from me."

The city of Manhattan agreed to an economic development package of $800,000, of which $500,000 is a repayable conventional loan and the remainder is a forgivable loan.

"The time is now to develop K-State’s Office Park as a substantial campus innovation to attract corporate partners who desire to work and conduct research in the K-State academic ecosystem with our students and faculty," said K-State president Richard Myers. "As we advance toward national recognition as a Top 50 public research university, these cooperative relationships strengthen the K-State and Manhattan communities."

The design of the building is such that it encourages the goal of bringing companies to Manhattan and "growing them up," Lohrentz said. Being scalable is important.

"We can move walls in 1,200-square-foot increments; if a company grows to three to six, new space can be expanded within a week," he said.

Once the Phase II building is at about 80 percent occupancy, K-State officials will look at the third building planned in the complex, Lohrentz said.