The opening of PreSonus' new Baton Rouge headquarters brought more than just music industry VIPs, business community leaders, and PreSonus employees, distributors, and dealers — it brought a sense of local pride in the history of the company.
- Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal opened the ceremonies, and PreSonus chairman of the board Kevin Couhig, CEO Jim Mack, cofounder/chief strategy officer Jim Odom, and cofounder/vice president of manufacturing Brian Smith each offered their thoughts about the new building, located at 18011 Grand Bay Court, just off Highland Road.
- "This new facility enables us to continue to grow PreSonus and at the same time improve the lives of our staff," said Mack. "Its architectural design enables us to work better as a team, be more productive and better create, market, and sell our products." Noted Odom, "We now have the facilities to research, innovate, and develop the next generation of music and audio products."
- Designed by local architects Ritter Maher, and developed by Moniotte Investments, the new 44,000-square-foot building cost approximately $8.8 million, including land and development.
- Among the unique features is a specialized high-tech recording studio and R&D space that was custom-designed for PreSonus' engineering and testing teams by the award-winning Walters-Storyk Design Group of Highland, New York. The 2,500-square-foot, state-of-the-art studio features a control room, a 500-square-foot live-sound room, two isolation rooms, a video-production suite, and five test labs, as well as a separate 1,500-square-foot live-sound room.
- The grand opening celebration used virtually every inch of the building, with live bands entertaining the crowd in the parking lot, the foyer, and the live-sound room, as well as jamming in the studio. Featured performers included Tab Benoit (backed by Louisiana's LeRoux, with Jim Odom on guitar), Edwin McCain, Briana Tyson, and Chris LeBlanc.
