Chris Patscheck held up an oversized pair of blue scissors and flashed a smile at Raven Defense Corp. employees, their families and other guests seated outside the Albuquerque firm's new home.
And with a quick snip of a blue ribbon, the four-year-old company officially reached a new stage — one with a lot more space.
Raven Defense on Tuesday celebrated the opening of its new headquarters at 4411 The 25 Way NE. The suite — located in a building owned by a national real estate investment trust — offers just over 25,000 square feet, said Patscheck, the company's president and CEO.
That's more than five times the size of the company's first office off of Balloon Park Road NE. That space will come in handy for the 27 people who now work for Raven Defense some four years after Patscheck, Megan Valles, Michael Robson and Michael Petty — all former Raytheon employees — laid the foundation for the company.
Together, Raven Defense aims to design and build solutions for satellite communications and counter-drone operations. The company supports a wide variety of federal entities in need of advanced communications systems and innovative test and evaluation capabilities.
Raven Defense also maintains a 4-acre outdoor test and operations center for advanced technologies and an additional 5,000-square-foot facility.
In the deal, Albuquerque broker Gannon Coffman represented Raven Defense, which signed a 10-year lease and took occupancy in November. Last fall, Southwest Realty Partners' Coffman told Albuquerque Business First that Robson reached out about potential real estate for an expansion. Their relationship goes back to high school when they both played for La Cueva High School's football team.
Coffman said historically low vacancies throughout the Albuquerque metro area made the search time-consuming. Raven Defense considered converting big-box retail spaces and opportunities to build an office, but ultimately found the location near Interstate 25 and Jefferson Street NE.
Colliers International's Shona Martinez and Scott Whitefield represented the property's landlord, which Martinez declined to name. The REIT does own the entire property, she said, which is also home to Boeing, Prime Therapeutics LLC and Radiology Associates of Albuquerque.
Martinez said Raven Defense and Coffman toured the space last July and signed a deal by October.
"We are delighted that they were able to secure a facility big enough for their needs as a fast-growing company," she said in an email to Business First.
