TAI, which was formerly called Tridex Associates Inc., is creating an approximately 300,000-square-foot office, manufacturing, research and storage development off Eskimo Hill Road that is expected to be finished in a little more than a year.

A 70,000-square-foot warehouse was recently completed at TAI’s 56-acre site on Big Spring Lane. Suffolk Construction Co. is now building a three-level, 230,000-square-foot office building.

When the office building is finished, TAI will move out of its Woodbridge facility, put it on the market and shift all jobs to Stafford. The company has already started moving a few workers down.

TAI develops and builds high-tech products, including telecommunications, for federal agencies. The new office building will have space for engineering, research, development and manufacturing.

The company has been in Woodbridge since 1993, shortly after it was founded, said president and owner Chris Hudson. The square footage at the Woodbridge site is about half the size of the new one.

The current site was hemmed in, so several years ago Hudson started looking throughout Northern Virginia for a place where the company could grow.

He settled on Stafford partly because much of the company’s workforce already lives south of Prince William County. He also liked the county’s less-developed character, which allowed him to pick a site that was off the beaten path yet had close access to U.S. 1, Marine Corps Base Quantico and the Stafford Regional Airport.

Hudson said the company needs to be reasonably close to Washington. The Stafford site is private and secure, and allows the company to “blend into the surroundings,” he said.

TAI has made significant improvements to Big Spring Lane and Eskimo Hill Road. The facility is part of the Central Stafford Commerce Center, and Hudson said more development is likely in that complex.

The new TAI office building will be one of the largest structures in Stafford. Among the few that are bigger are the Geico building (about 391,320 square feet), Stafford Hospital (258,755) and the new Russell–Knox Building for incoming BRAC jobs (719,000 square feet).

Cardinal Bank and Burke & Herbert Bank provided the financing for the $50 million project. Welford Engineering did the site work.

TAI recently formed a partnership with San Antonio-based Southwest Research Institute, a large research and development organization with $548 million in total revenue for fiscal 2010. The TAI and Southwest Research consortium, TAISR, will go after pursue contracts together.

Stafford Economic Development Director Tim Baroody said he hopes to involve TAI and the Southwest Research Institute in the county’s efforts to build a research and technology park in North Stafford.

Bill Freehling: 540/374-5405

bfreehling@freelancestar.com