TERRE HAUTE - A new high-tech testing laboratory appears to be set for construction soon in Terre Haute.

VEXTEC, a company co-founded by Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology graduates that uses sophisticated computer technology to test things such as jet engines, could be breaking ground on a high-tech laboratory facility near Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field soon, airport and VEXTEC officials said Friday.

"We're working toward closing" a deal, said George Brattain, a Terre Haute attorney representing VEXTEC, a Nashville, Tenn.-based company co-founded by Rose-Hulman graduates Loren Nasser and Robert Tryon III. "Hopefully that [closing] will occur soon," Brattain said.

Nasser, a 1978 Terre Haute North Vigo High School graduate and 1982 graduate of Rose-Hulman, said a closing on the property could come within the next two weeks. After that, weather permitting, construction on the facility could begin quickly and the laboratory could be up and running by spring, he said.

At present, three or four people are slated to work at the laboratory with more job growth possible, Nasser said. "We do have hopes of growing that lab site," he said.

The approximately six acres of land VEXTEC plans to buy are west of the airport on Hunt Road and north of another high-tech firm, Tri-Aerospace LLC.

A final sale price will be available after the closing, said John VanEtten, president of the Terre Haute Airport Authority's board of directors.

Attracting a company such as VEXTEC is exactly what airport officials had in mind several years ago when they bought land adjacent to the airport for economic development, VanEtten said. "The airport purchased the property to attract exactly this type of business," he said.

VEXTEC was the first company to develop computer software to predict how materials will respond to product use. In the same way the genetic code allowed scientists to figure out how living things develop, VEXTEC has "done the same thing in material science," Nasser said.

Co-founder Tryon is a 1977 Terre Haute South Vigo High School graduate and a 1981 and 1982 graduate of Rose-Hulman. A third person, Animesh Dey, also co-founded the company in 2000.

Because of technology developed by VEXTEC, a jet engine test that would have cost around $5 million to perform in the past can be done for around $100,000 today, Nasser said.

Clients of VEXTEC include the four major jet engine manufacturers - GE, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royse and Honeywell, Nasser said.

Since its founding, VEXTEC has been involved in research with virtually every sector of the military and NASA, according to the company's Web site. Some of the projects the company has worked on include the Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft development program, the ballistic missile defense program and long range strike fighter development, the Web site said.

"The airport has tried very hard to get VEXTEC to build a plant here," VanEtten said. "We're really, really happy they are coming here."