BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) – A maker of high-tech optical filters has opened a new corporate headquarters that it has planned as the centerpiece of a environmentally friendly, off-the-grid corporate campus.

“We are within one mile of Brattleboro’s downtown, but at the same time completely isolated from the surrounding area,” said Robert Johnson, who founded Omega Optical in 1969. “It’s part of my concept that people perform the best when they are in a confined environment in concert with nature.”

On Friday, the company invited the public to see its new 32,000-square-foot headquarters, and Johnson described plans to build space for seven new high-tech companies, 45 residential homes and a small college at his Delta Campus in the next few years.

Johnson noted that the 133-acre site was a former dump, and that the remains of more than 5,000 cars were taken away from the fields and woods.

Solar panels on a nearby hill and a biodiesel generator provide the electricity for the headquarters, the driveway is built from limestone to reflect the heat, and the building uses lights that automatically adjust themselves to available natural light.

Construction on the homes, educational campus and spaces for other high-tech businesses are expected to begin in the next year, Johnson added. More than 100 of the acres will remain undeveloped for wildlife and outdoor recreation use.

“About 98 percent of the materials to build this came from local vendors,” said Gordon Bristol, a former state representative from Brattleboro who acted as the project manager. “It shows that you can build the Vermont way.”

Hundreds of state and local officials flocked to the campus Friday for the ribbon-cutting ceremony of Omega Optical’s headquarters.

Gov. James Douglas, who helped the company get a $250,000 loan to jump-start the work, said, “We’re lucky to have this in our state,” Douglas said. “This is a community-building success story.”

AP-ES-09-17-05 1548EDT