Construction has begun on Rose Acre Farms’ new $5 million corporate office building on the west side of Seymour.

Once completed late this year or early next year, the egg producer plans to move its current office headquarters from the Cortland area into the new building, which is being built on vacant property east of Covered Bridge Health Campus on West Tipton Street.

Tony Wesner, chief operating officer of Rose Acre Farms, said a bigger facility is needed because the company has outgrown its office space at its headquarters on State Road 258 between Seymour and Freetown.

Being located within Seymour city limits provides new opportunities for growth, said Mark Whittington, vice president of risk management.

“We’ve been a part of this community for many years, and as we grow, we want to be a bigger part of Seymour,” Whittington said. “This new office building will be beneficial to our employees and a better location for our corporate offices.”

One problem that will be eliminated is the difficulty of reaching the existing corporate offices after heavy rains and flooding.

“There will be plenty of space for conferences and for meetings with vendors,” Whittington said. “It will be a great working environment.”

The move brings 80 employees to Seymour. No new jobs are being offered at this time, but that could change in the future, company officials said.

The city’s plan commission approved the company’s development plan for the 7-acre property at 1657 W. Tipton St. during a special meeting July 28.

Presenting the plans for the 25,900-square-foot facility was project designer Ted Schwartz of Force Construction in Columbus.

David Force, design architect for the project, said a lot of thought and input from the company went into the design.

“The design intent was to first and foremost create an office environment for Rose Acre Farms staff that is efficient, attractive and adaptable,” Force said. “There will be large areas of flexible open office that will allow various departments to be more interactive with each other.”

The building is entirely a new structure and is designed to be easily expandable in the future, he said.

“The lobby will have areas of displaying some historical equipment and vehicles that go back to their very earliest days as a business,” Force said.

On the outside, plans call for the exterior of the building to be simple and clean, with architectural touches that will reflect the agricultural heritage of Rose Acre Farms, Force said.

Whittington said everyone is excited about the new offices and about being in Seymour.

The construction site is temporarily being accessed off of Schleter Road from the south end of the property, but the only entrance to the new facility when completed will be from U.S. 50, Schwartz said.

A dry retention pond on the southwest corner of the property will help provide stormwater drainage for the site, Schwartz said. The water will be piped below Schleter Road and empty into the Von Fange Ditch on the other side.

There will be no manufacturing or production of egg products at the new facility.

The company also owns a nearby building that once housed Al’s Heartbeat Cafe and Miss Luck E’s restaurants, which it is using as a warehouse.

“We’ll actually be housing some employees there, as well,” Whittington said.

Rose Acre Farms started in 1939 as a small operation with 1,000 hens but now is America’s second-largest egg producer, with 17 facilities in six states. The company employs about 1,900 people and has an estimated annual revenue of $200 million.