Deep Blue Communications, a fast-growing Wi-Fi provider in Latham, is moving about half the local staff to downtown Troy — filling the offices formerly leased by software firm Apprenda at Hedley Park Place.
The move into 20,285 square feet on the fourth floor of 433 River St. will give Deep Blue the room it needs to keep getting bigger, CEO Brian Epstein said. “If history repeats itself, we’ll have another 30 percent growth this year,” Epstein said.
Deep Blue had about $38 million in revenue last year and employs 125, including roughly 85 at the administrative offices and help desk at 7 Century Hill Drive in Latham.
The help desk, which is staffed 24/7, will stay in Latham. But the other employees, about 40, will move to Troy.
Epstein expects to hire 20 more people this year split between Latham and Troy. The lease with Kevin Bette at First Columbia LLC was signed Thursday, returning the total occupancy of the 272,000-square-foot building to 94 percent.
First Columbia owns the Century Hill Plaza office park, but not the building that Deep Blue will continue to use for its call center. Epstein said the turnaround in Troy will be quick — as early as April — because the office is equipped with Apprenda’s furniture.
An adjacent 12,000 square feet space is available for further expansion if needed. “Zac did a great job finding exactly what we needed,” Epstein said of Zac Conley, managing principal at Cresa, a commercial broker that represents tenants.
Apprenda, which employed more than 100 at its peak in Troy, New York City and Europe, closed abruptly last summer. Co-founder Sinclair Schuller started a new business in downtown Troy, Nuvalence.
Founded in 2004, Deep Blue Communications has risen rapidly in recent years by engineering, installing and supporting wireless networks at large hotels and venues across North America and the Caribbean.
A private equity investment in 2016 provided a jolt, enabling Deep Blue to buy other firms. Epstein is pursuing deals with real estate investment trusts and hospitality management companies that have hundreds of hotels in their portfolio, a potential big step up for Deep Blue.
“We’ve now earned the right to have those conversations,” he said.
