A Missouri design company has scooped up a wad of Roanoke's federal stimulus dollars, winning a contract to design the renovation of the Richard H. Poff Federal Building to make it more energy efficient.

Kansas City-based TranSystems Corp. got the $2.9 million design contract Sept. 30, the federal General Services Administration announced Thursday. The firm will start work this month and plans to finish next summer. Then, construction will commence.

The contract is just one part of the $50.9 million renovation project to make the 14-story Franklin Road building "green" by adding an energy-efficient window system and a solar-roof system. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, President Obama's effort to rejuvenate local economies struggling with recession, will fund the project.

"The green technologies employed in this project will create jobs in both traditional construction sectors and emerging green industries," said Linda Chero, acting regional administrator of GSA, which awarded the contract.

Bill Hume, president of Roanoke's Independent Design Group, said he isn't surprised the bid went to an out-of-state firm rather than a local one.

"We also compete for out-of-state as well, so it's a two-way street," Hume said. His firm didn't bid on the Poff building project.

However, "there's no work in Roanoke that's too involved that we don't have people locally who can do the work and adequately and professionally complete it," Hume said.

While federal awards don't cater to local companies, the money sometimes goes to firms working in their home turf, he said.

Besides TranSystems Corp., 15 companies were "interested vendors" in the project, according to the Federal Business Opportunities database. Of those listed, none is Roanoke-based.