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Enterasys is welcomed back to NH





  • NH Dept. of Resources & Economic Development Commissioner George Bald, center, speaks to employees of Enterasys who will be working in this building at 9 Northeastern Drive in Salem on Tuesday.


    (Thomas Roy/Union Leader)


SALEM — State and local officials welcomed Enterasys and its more than 500 employees back to the Granite State Tuesday at its planned new headquarters at 9 Northeastern Drive.

Combined with other new tenants — Comcast, CCS and Nora Flooring Systems — there are 1,100 new jobs, all attracted from Massachusetts, coming to the building that formerly housed Cisco Systems.

“This is exciting news because it’s bringing some vitality back to an old building,” Salem Selectman Chairwoman Beth Roth said.

Enterasys, which traces its roots to the old Cabletron Systems business in Rochester, will bring many high-tech engineers to the plant, with offices, research and development and testing labs.

Enterasys, which was a spinoff from Cabletron, was based in Portsmouth in the 1990s before moving to Andover, Mass.

Enterasys President Chris Crowell said, “We signed the lease. Now there’s a lot of work.

“It will be a beautiful facility once we get here, I know that,” Crowell added.

George Bald, commissioner of the state Department of Resources and Economic Development, said, “I’m just delighted you’re coming back to New Hampshire.”

Enterasys Chief Information Officer Dan Petlon said the company now has 517 employees but will have 545 to 550 by the time employees start to move from Andover during the fourth quarter. The first group will move between Christmas and New Year’s, with the transition continuing into 2013.

The growing computer networking business has 120 employees more than it did a year ago, Crowell said.

“If we continue to grow the way we’ve been growing, we will fill this quickly,” he said of the former Cisco site. “We’re also consolidating spaces, and it provides a great opportunity for more investment, just given the economic benefits.

“We’re all very happy to be here,” Crowell said.

Enterasys, now a Siemens Enterprise Communications company, will occupy approximately 190,000 square feet.

Brent Maugel, of Maugel Architects, in Harvard, Mass., said the wide space and high ceilings mean the opportunity to create a very dramatic indoor and outdoor working space for Enterasys.

“There are three different ceiling heights,” Maugel said. “Floating clouds we call them, some at 14 feet high, some at 12 feet high, some at 10.”

There will be 15 new skylights, a glassed-in courtyard, and a floor-to-ceiling glass entry way, along with a small conference center.

Equity Industrial Partners principal Bruce Levine said there are still 140,000 square feet available in the building. Equity previously bought the building from Compaq in 2001 and sold it to Cisco for $46 million. Equity bought it back 2010 for $12.2 million, with CCS as a partner.

The 650,000-square-foot building was attractive for state development officials’ recruiting efforts.

“I can attract tenants from 20,000 to 300,000 square feet,” said Michael Bergeron, business development manager for the state Department of Resources and Economic Development.
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