Firm lights the way to new HQ

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Evolucia, an LED lighting company that has gone through multiple strategies, top executives and a name change over the past five years, will move into a new 61,000-square-foot corporate headquarters.

The company, which will stay in Sarasota County, will move into the former Gemesis building in a Lakewood Ranch corporate park, just east of Interstate 75 off University Parkway, according to a release. Gemesis, a lab-grown diamond manufacturer that occupied the building for about five years, recently downsized its operations.

Evolucia plans to turn the building, owned by local real estate developer Fred Starling, into a manufacturing facility with a focus on research, development and testing, the release says. The company will maintain its offshore international mass-production through a partnership with Leader Electronics. It also will continue to develop contract-manufacturing relationships in Radom, Poland, for distribution of products into European markets. Evolucia previously occupied 18,000 square feet off Fruitville Road in Sarasota.

But the new headquarters, says Evolucia CEO Mel Interiano, is where the crux of the company's future lies. The firm, according to the statement, acquired new manufacturing and optical testing equipment for the facility, which should be installed by the third quarter. The equipment will allow Evolucia to bring home some work it previously outsourced.

“Our new corporate headquarters provides us with not only the facilities required for growth, but with both the creative environment and the tools necessary to maintain our lead in the development of next generation lighting solutions,” Interiano says in the release. “Our new world headquarters stand as a concrete symbol of the steps we have taken in the complete strategic refocusing of our company.”

That refocus, though, has come at a price. The company, formerly Sunovia Energy Technologies, has lost more than $40 million since 2009, and Interiano is the third CEO since August 2010. But Interiano, in a letter to shareholders earlier this year, says his objective is to build a durable company that can support at least $200 million in annual sales.