Agilent Technologies Inc. recently installed a fourth modular office building on its Liberty Lake campus, and will move workers into that structure next month.


The modular office gives Agilent an additional 25,600 square feet of space at its Liberty Lake facility, at 24001 E. Mission, says company spokeswoman Liz Cox.


When the new modular building is occupied, Palo Alto-based Agilentwhich formerly was part of Hewlett-Packard Co.will have nearly 350,000 square feet of space in Spokane, split between its main building, its modular offices, and leased space at the Spokane Business & Industrial Park, Cox says.


Moving administrative workers into modular offices frees up space in the main plant for manufacturing work, Cox says.


Agilent needs that space to accommodate rapid growth in its printed-circuit assembly operations and wireless business operations here, which in the past Cox has called white hot.


The demands of manufacturing are such that (those activities) cant be housed in modulars, she says. Modulars allow us a tremendous amount of flexibility when we have this kind of fast growth, because we can bring these structures on line very quickly.


Agilent employs about 1,200 people here, up from just under 1,000 in late October, Cox says. No further hiring is planned after the new modular building is ready to be occupied, sometime in August, she says.


We have completed the most recent push for hiring, she says.


Cox says Agilent has no plans to build another permanent plant at Liberty Lake.