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Blacksburg advertising agency Modea Corp. announced plans Thursday to more than triple its work force and build a $10 million corporate headquarters at the site of the former Blacksburg Middle School in downtown Blacksburg.

The fast-growing firm, which has 75 employees and was founded in 2006 by two Virginia Tech graduates, will anchor a planned redevelopment of prime public property that sits fenced off and boarded up just blocks from the center of downtown.

The old middle school site on commercially vibrant South Main Street has been out of service for eight years.

A contractor paid by Montgomery County will be selected soon to demolish the brick schoolhouse building in June. The Blacksburg Town Council expects to rezone the 20 acres for offices, residences, retail and civic use.

The sale of about a third of the lot to Modea for $2.45 million is expected to jump-start the project and generate cash needed for new school construction.

Modea, now squeezed into 10,000 square feet in two downtown office buildings, will construct a new headquarters of 50,000 to 60,000 square feet.

That's the vision that founders David Catalano, 33, and Aaron Herrington, 32, are developing with green design firm Envision Architects, which could have building renderings out by June.

Plans are for the company to move its employees to the new space in 2013 or 2014 and hit a hiring target of 200 new workers by the middle of the decade, Catalano said.

The founders, both finance majors, previously were involved with Nueweb (later renamed Exemplum). The company, which produced three-dimensional views of products for websites, launched with the help of $1 million in venture capital.

The two later started Modea with their own money, and the NewVa Corridor Technology Council last year gave them its annual Entrepreneur Award.

Inc. magazine last year ranked Modea as one the country's 5,000 fastest-growing companies. It pays a median salary of $77,000, Catalano said, and needs account representatives, project managers, creative types, programmers and others versed in digital advertising, which means building brands on the Web.

Modea's leaders have spent "quite a few months" looking for more space for current operations and room to grow as it serves a lineup of clients who include Verizon Wireless, Graco, HTC, Chiquita Brands International, sporting goods company Mizuno, the window treatment company Levelor and the tool company Lenox, Catalano said.

They crossed off possible sites in Illinois, North Carolina and Texas before deciding to stay in Blacksburg in a self-financed deal sweetened by government incentives, according to a news release from Gov. Bob McDonnell.

"We really believe in this town," Catalano said. "The balance Blacksburg offers is incredible. It's a great place to have fun as well as raise a family."

He added: "Something that's very important for Modea employees is having access to the restaurants and the other amenities that are available in downtown Blacksburg."

In addition, "a large number of our people live in downtown or near downtown," he said.

To help pay for the company's expansion, the Virginia Department of Business Assistance will provide $200,000 to support employee recruitment and training.

In addition, the company may be eligible to receive a Major Business Facility Job Tax Credit, which comes to $1,000 per new worker hired over 100.

Meanwhile, the county's Economic Development Authority agreed to furnish a performance-based grant of up to $250,000 over 10 years.

What to do with the 20-acre middle school property is near the top of the public agenda in Blacksburg.

Town and county officials this week started a two-month series of "stakeholder meetings" and a community workshop to flesh out a vision.

But progress has come slowly -- at least until now. Modea's decision to take 6 acres means the beginning of the end to years of debate between the county and town on how to proceed and kicks off a board of supervisors plan to sell multiple former school sites to raise $10 million toward building new schools countywide.

Modea sells into one of the healthier segments of the advertising industry, which has been flat overall for the past five years, particularly for firms that use traditional forms such as print and television, said Scott Sherman, an assistant professor in the School of Mass Communications at Virginia Commonwealth University.

But digital advertising -- Modea's speciality -- is one growth area, he said, adding that he expects firms soon to embrace and promote mobile phone advertisements.

Modea's niche in the digital advertising world is key to its ability to expand, he said.

Also, the Blacksburg firm fosters an innovative community of employees by hiring young talent, said Donna Wertalik, a marketing instructor at Virginia Tech's Pamplin College of Business.

"Digital can come so naturally to them," she said.

Staff writers Katelyn Polantz, Jenny Kincaid Boone, Michael Sluss and Brian Kelley contributed to this report.