Kohoutek's open for business in Verona. And Isis, Juno and Heaven are on the way.
For those unfamiliar with Epic's penchant for naming buildings after celestial things, those are the four new office buildings that are part of the company's latest round of construction.
The four buildings, which will collectively hold roughly 1,700 offices, have been in various stages of construction over the past year, with Kohoutek opening in August.
Together, they will be Campus 2, and by the time they're completed next spring, they'll provide enough space for the health-care software company to move nearly all of its ever-expanding, 3,400-strong workforce to Verona.
Currently, about 2,000 of Epic's staff are in Verona on Campus 1, which includes five office buildings with about 300 offices each. More offices are inside the "Voyager Hall" training center - part of a centralized, s-shaped building that also houses the Epicenter auditorium, which seats about 5,300 and was completed in 2007.
It seems construction never stops at Epic. In fact, over the past six months, an average of 650 construction workers have been working on site, said Jim Schumacher, project executive for general contractor J.P. Cullen.
The company also opened a 4-level, 2,065-stall underground garage (known as "Yoda") this summer.
Schumacher said the other three new buildings - Juno, Isis and Heaven - should be completed in December, March and April, respectively.
By all appearances, then, it seems Verona's largest employer is weathering the economic downturn nicely. Revenues in 2008 climbed to around $600 million from roughly $500 million in 2007 and $422 million in 2006, though the company didn't provide projections for 2009.
It seems likely that the federal stimulus act passed earlier this year could help Epic, too. It includes roughly $36 billion in incentives to healthcare providers who switch from paper to electronic medical records, which is Epic's specialty.
Those incentives will start paying out in 2011, and after 2015, clinics and hospitals could be penalized if they don't make the change.
Meanwhile, Epic this week is hosting its annual Users' Group Meeting, which draws about 3,600 customers from around the nation and beyond.
The event is a little scaled back from last year, as there are no big-name keynote speakers and attendance is slightly lower. But spokesperson Terry Leigh Rhody indicated that the company expected as much, as clients everywhere are looking to trim costs.
In this economy, she told the Verona Press, "We believe flat is the new up."
