Bend Research has leased space at 1201 NW Bond St., the former downtown Bend home of law firm Karnopp Petersen, and plans to move a portion of its workforce there next month, according to company officials.

The company, acquired by New Jersey-based Capsugel in 2013, is taking the top two floors, about 15,000 square feet, of the three-story building. Cascade Insurance Center, now on 336 SW Cyber Drive, is relocating the entire firm to 3,500 square feet on the first floor. Both companies plan to move into the building in May.

Taking over office space on NW Wall Street for Bend Research is another in a series of expansions. In July, it opened the doors on a new, 5,872-square-foot manufacturing plant at 20503 Builders St., adjacent to company headquarters off Boyd Acres Road near Empire Avenue . The building cost $25 million. In September, Bend Research purchased a 2.94-acre lot adjacent to the new facility with undisclosed plans to build there.

Bend Research specializes in a process called spray-dried dispersion, a method that improves the effectiveness and shelf lives of drugs.

The NW Wall Street property, known as Riverpoint One, allows Bend Research to relocate some members of its growing team, according to an email statement from Jim Nightingale, Bend Research president.

“The newly leased space provides room for more than 70 colleagues, as well as five extra conference rooms for internal meetings and customer visits,” Nightingale stated. “We are finalizing plans regarding who will relocate to the new space, and we plan to start moving people in May.”

The former tenant, Karnopp Petersen LLP, last year moved to a new location in the Moda Building, 360 SW Bond St., after 25 years in the same NW Wall Street location.

Fratzke Commercial Real Estate, of Bend, brokered the lease for the building owner. Fratzke advertised the space at $1.35 per square foot per month, triple net, meaning the lessee pays the rent plus building taxes and maintenance. Broker Nick Vaughn, of Fratzke, declined to state the final lease terms.

Lease rates for office space in Bend climbed on average by 3.6 percent in fourth quarter 2015 and by 8 percent for the year, according to Compass Commercial Real Estate Services, which tracks vacancies and lease rates in Bend. The average office rate in Bend was $1.37 per square foot, according to Compass. Landlords are asking as much as $2.50 for space in newer construction in more desirable sites in Bend, said Vaughn, of Fratzke.

Patrick O’Keefe, owner of Cascade Insurance Center, said the firm’s landlord, Charles Bonnett, owns both the SW Cyber Drive property and the firm’s new home, Riverpoint One. The insurance firm, which is moving 13 employees downtown and buying new office furniture, negotiated a lease rate that will cost about the same as it already pays, O’Keefe said Wednesday.

“It’s giving us a little bit more space than we have now,” he said. “We’ve been sitting on top of each other.”

Cascade Insurance Center started on NW Wall Street in 1985, O’Keefe said. It will share the first floor with Smile Keepers, a dentists’ office that’s been in the building since 2011, said Smile Keepers office manager Shelly Batty.

— Reporter: 541-617-7815,

jditzler@bendbulletin.com

Editor’s note: This article has been corrected. In the original version, Capsugel was incorrectly identified. In addition, Patrick O’Keefe’s position with Cascade Insurance Center was incorrectly identified. The Bulletin regrets the errors.