A proposed expansion of Mobile-based Prism Systems Inc. could generate a new research and development facility and create 16 high-tech jobs with average annual salaries of $70,000.

“We’re out of real estate,” Todd Hassel, business development manager for the 26-year-old engineering and software development firm, told the city of Mobile’s Industrial Development Board this month.

This is the property Prism is considering for its Mobile expansion. (Kelli M. Dugan/Alabama NewsCenter)

Specifically, Prism –  in the heart of downtown – is considering buying the adjacent building  and renovating the structure to house an R&D laboratory, engineering and software offices and conference facilities.

In turn, the company requested and was granted nearly $55,000 in non-educational property and sales tax abatements for the expansion, which is expected to generate within three years as much as $3 million annually for the Mobile economy. That includes payroll of more than $1.1 million for the 16 new hires.

“(Prism) will have 100 total employees once this is complete,” David Rodgers, project manager with the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce’s economic development department, told the board.

The company also operates an electrical panel shop on Conception Street; a manufacturing assembly facility in nearby McIntosh and offices in Birmingham and Los Angeles. In addition, Hassel said about 10 percent of Prism’s workforce has relocated to Shanghai, China, for a long-term assignment.

The 10-year abatement requested noted Prism’s long-range plans include relocating the Washington County assembly shop and expanding its Birmingham operations.

Hassel said given the global nature of Prism’s work, the firm is considering sites in Shanghai and Los Angeles for the expansion but would obviously like to grow its corporate base in Mobile if it makes the most business sense.

If Mobile is the selected site, Prism’s total capital investment for the R&D project would be $650,000.

For more than two decades, Prism’s multidisciplinary team of engineers and software development programmers has provided Fortune 500 companies across the globe with design and integration services, currently executing projects in all 50 states and 31 countries.

Targeting industrial manufacturing markets, Prism’s expertise spans everything from the chemical and food/beverage sectors to the telecommunications and entertainment industries. More specifically, the company’s projects run the gamut from optimizing a rum distillery in Trinidad and implementing the controls on ships in Rio de Janeiro to a manufacturing line in Thailand and installing IT projects to assist law enforcement’s drug enforcement efforts in Tajikistan.

Meanwhile, Prism was one of only eight Alabama firms honored in March by Gov. Robert Bentley as a 2015 recipient of the ninth annual Governor’s Trade Excellence Award. Coordinated by the Alabama Department of Commerce and Export Alabama Alliance, the program recognizes each year small, medium, large and new-to-export businesses across the state.

At the time of the award was bestowed, Prism was recognized for developing the software to control the world’s largest candy bar production line and the most complex and expensive amusement park ride ever built.