Fast-growing tech company moving to Cool Springs By Richard Lawson Nashville Post April 27, 2006

Fast growing Cybera Inc. has leased a full floor in one of the Primus buildings in Cool Springs.

The five-year-old company has outgrown its 10,550 square feet in Grassmere Business Park and will move into 23,619 square feet, possibly by June. Cybera won’t fill all of the space immediately. Some of the space will be reserved for future expansion.

“It gives us more running room for several years,” said Amanda Cecconi, Cybera’s vice president of marketing.

The move will be the second for Cybera, which provides private broadband networking for companies. Early last year, Cybera moved into its current space after outgrowing space it had shared with Investment Scorecard Inc.

Interestingly, the move takes Cecconi and other Cybera executives back to familiar territory. Cecconi worked for Primus in the early 1990s. She also was with Bluestar Communications, which had its headquarters in one of the Corporate Centre office buildings just down from Carothers Parkway from Primus.

Cliff Duffey, Cybera’s chief executive officer and co-founder, and Tom Spear, Cybera’s senior vice president of operations and co-founder, both had been in senior positions at Bluestar, which was bought by Covad Communications in late 2000. Covad spiraled into bankruptcy when the technology sector’s boom diminished.

“Cliff’s office is going to look at the Bluestar building,” Cecconi said.

Obviously, they hope that it’s not a bad omen to move back to Cool Springs. “We are in a totally different business environment,” she said.

With Bluestar, the company grew from 60 to 900 employees rapidly. Cecconi said that isn’t the case with Cybera. The move is part of a deliberate, realistic growth strategy, she said.

Tom Hooper and Dan Bauchiero, brokers with Eakins Partners who represented Cybera in the Primus deal, will assist the company in subleasing the Grassmere space.

Primus Financial Services, a brand of Ford Motor Credit put up for lease near half its regional headquarters in February. Janet Sterchi, a broker with CB Richard Ellis, has been marketing the building for the company.

Since the space became available, it has drawn considerable interest. Nissan North America recently leased 73,000 square feet of temporary space until the company’s headquarters building just down Carothers Parkway is completed in 2008.

Real estate brokers say other leases are in the works for the Primus space. Primus planned to sell the building once the available space was leased. But offers have already been solicited. Douglass Johnson and Don Albright, both of CB Richard Ellis, are handling the investment sale.

© Copyright 2006, The Nashville Post.