Exa Corp. will open new headquarters in Burlington

Landlord and real estate firm Nordblom Co. has inked a lease for 66,000 square feet with Exa Corp., a software maker that will be the first new tenant at Nordblom's massive Network Drive at the Northwest Park redevelopment project in Burlington.

Exa will open new headquarters at 55 Network Drive, a 132,000-square-foot building completed in 2001.

In 2007, Nordblom, which has its corporate office in Burlington, purchased the building and the surrounding 158-acre office campus from Sun Microsystems Inc., a California company that provides network computing infrastructure products.

"We are pleased to be the first new tenant to move into this state-of-the-art, first class Network Drive campus," Exa chief executive Stephen Remondi said in a statement today.

The new facility will double the firm's space to help accommodate future growth. Exa's current headquarters are also in Burlington.

The deal marks a significant milestone for Nordblom, which has been battling against a sluggish real estate market to attract new tenants to Network Drive, which is among a slew of office parks being developed along Route 128 North.
(By Casey Ross, Globe staff)