While a Toledo Symphony trumpeter tooted the national anthem, flags ran up the pole Monday in front of the new Monclova Township headquarters of The Andersons Inc., signifying that the sleek, $54 million edifice has officially opened for business.

Wielding a pair of giant scissors, company Chief Executive Patrick Bowe, flanked by Chairman Mike Anderson and Chairman Emeritus Dick Anderson, cut a large yellow ribbon to cap a brief grand opening ceremony held outside the entrance where about 500 dignitaries, company employees, and well-wishers were gathered.

“It’s been a long trip and a mighty interesting one for me getting from ‘that’ to ‘this,’ ” said Dick Anderson, recalling the small office building on Illinois Avenue in Maumee that served as the company’s first headquarters when it started in 1947.

IN PICTURES: The Andersons opens new headquarters

Mr. Bowe said the occasion was “really a special day for northwest Ohio” and the 140,000-square foot headquarters, which is on a 63-acre campus and was built on time and on budget, represented “a dream come true for us.”

Since 1980, The Andersons, a Fortune 1,000 agribusiness with revenues last year of $4.2 billion, has been located in a 103,000-square foot building at 480 W. Dussel Dr. in Maumee’s Arrowhead Park. Although the new headquarters is less than a mile away, it is in Monclova Township (with a Maumee mailing address) and The Andersons was able to acquire an address of 1947 Briarfield Blvd. — paying homage to the company’s founding in 1947.

About 550 employees occupy the building, though it can accommodate 700. The final 100 employees moved into the building last week from Maumee, a site the company had leased.

Designed by the Collaborative Inc., of Toledo, the headquarters, which architecturally has lines and form evoking a barn, borrowed a lot of features from the new La-Z-Boy Inc. headquarters in Monroe, Mr. Bowe said. Officials of The Andersons spent 18 months searching for a site in the Toledo area, and additional time looking at headquarters in various cities and states around the Great Lakes to study their features.

Mr. Bowe said one of the features he likes best is the openness of the building, creating synergies between the company’s various divisions — something that rarely happened in the old building.

“We’ve only been open two weeks and I can see that already happening,” he said.

Other aspects that please the CEO are walking paths and a pond abutting the building. It looks as if it will become a much-utilized area for employees to unwind and get out of the traditional work setting in order to approach problems in new ways.

“The other day I could see our grain traders out there. A group of them were out walking about and talking about what had taken place with their trades that day,” Mr. Bowe said. “I feel good about that.”

Mike Anderson said he was thrilled by the ergonomic and convenience properties of the headquarters, predicting it will make employees more productive, and the company more profitable.

For example, nearly all of the work spaces have desks that rise from a sitting position to a standing work desk at the touch of a button, he said.

“We couldn’t be more pleased at how this turned out,” he said of the building.

Deb Jump, senior manager of finance and systems, said she was delighted at being able to move her desk up or down as needed during the day to combat work stress.

“I love it. I absolutely love it,” she said, performing a short demonstration of her desk’s functions.

But even, better, she said, was the openness of the work areas. At the old building, she said, she couldn’t interact easily with workers in her department, but now they can all see and communicate with each other.

Company executives and employees praised the functionality of the building, but aesthetically, the headquarters was given a decidedly “Andersons” feel, nearly all said.

The building features 115,000 pounds of interior glass for natural light, and large lighting fixtures look like they could have been made from corrugated-steel grain storage bins.

The lobby walls feature a history of The Andersons, and one lobby wall is made of reclaimed grain-washed wood from a grain bin from a Noblesville, Ind., mill once managed by founder Harold Anderson’s father, David.

A top floor boardroom features the company’s logo as a unique recessed ceiling lighting fixture. Attached is an outdoor balcony for relaxing.

The building features a cafeteria stocked with ready-to-eat items stocked by The Andersons’ retail stores.

On the first floor are “trading pits” — a collection of state-of-the-art work spaces for the company’s grain and ethanol traders. 

Adjacent to the pits are large TV screens tuned to cable news stations to provide updates of any events that could affect prices.

The exterior of the building features natural stone reminiscent of early stone barn foundations, and the entrance features a large rock into which the company’s statement of principles is carved. Wi-Fi signals extend to the outdoor pathways and natural areas so that business can be conducted outside if so desired.

Wendy Gramza, president of the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce, said The Andersons’ headquarters is a showpiece that should be used to promote the area to outside firms.

“This is the kind of building you’d find in the really big cities. It’s modern, it’s great,” she said. “This is absolutely something you’d want to put on the front of a brochure or in a video about the region.”

Contact Jon Chavez at: jchavez@theblade.com or 419-724-6128.

First Published October 4, 2016, 4:00 a.m.