Agilent Technologies Inc., the Santa Clara, Calif.-based scientific-instrument maker with a large facility in Liberty Lake, is considering multiple options for the structure, including possibly selling it and leasing space elsewhere in the area, says Fred Krassowski, Agilent's human resources manager here.

Krassowski says the high-tech concern is considering four options for the about 250,000-square-foot building and property it owns at 24001 E. Mission. Agilent still occupies a portion of the building, but has been downsizing its operations here and no longer needs all of the space, he says.

The company could sell the building and move its Liberty Lake operations to leased space elsewhere here, sell the building and lease space there from the new owner, keep the building and lease out some of the space to other tenants, or remain put and do nothing, he says.

"It's bigger than we anticipate needing over the next several years," Krassowski says. "It's an underutilized asset. That's when you begin thinking about selling it."

Agilent said in December that it planned to cut 110 to 120 jobs at the Liberty Lake facility in 2009, including many engineers, managers, and technical professionals. Krassowski says the company will have about 100 employees in Liberty Lake after that round of employee cuts is complete later this year.

"The footprint in Spokane has gotten smaller," he says. "The company is always looking at ways to maximize its use of assets. It's a big asset, both the building and property."

Krassowski says that if the company decides to sell the building and lease space elsewhere, it likely would look for space in the Liberty Lake area.

"But at this point, no decisions have been made relative to either the sale of this site, or a new facility in the Liberty Lake area," he says. "At this point, that's all we're able to really talk to, until things are either decided and or are ready to be made public."

Agilent earlier had talked about selling its building in 2003.

The company's Liberty Lake operations design equipment used by manufacturers to test wireless devices such as cell phones, Krassowski says.

At one time, Agilent employed as many as 1,200 people here. The operations originally were part of electronics giant Hewlett-Packard Co., which developed the building in the early 1980s. The facility became part of Agilent in 1999.

Krassowski says Agilent owned 157 acres of property at its Liberty Lake site until 2003, when it sold about 67 acres there to Hunt Family Properties LLC, a Spokane company in which custom-cabinet maker Huntwood Industries Inc. CEO Tim Hunt is involved. In December 2005, Huntwood Industries moved into a 567,000-square-foot manufacturing plant it had built on that property just to the north.