Fast-growing OtterBox is expanding its real-estate footprint yet again, with plans for a new building in downtown Fort Collins based on expectations its payroll will grow from 400 today to as many as 1,500 in the next three years.

In a quiet deal that closed in October, the electronics case manufacturer purchased a seven-story building at 315 Oak St., a locale known as the Rocky Mountain Building, for $927,000, according to Larimer County public records. The building now houses 60 “Otters,” as well as three startup companies formed by former OtterBox employees.

In the same entrepreneurial spirit that began OtterBox, company CEO and founder Curt Richardson, along with President Brian Thomas, have invested in the ideas of a handful of Otters with their own business-launching aspirations. Nerdy Minds Marketing, Wild Rock PR and 1OAK Technologies are all offshoots of OtterBox’s success, run and staffed by former OtterBox employees and supported by OtterBox’s executive team in a variety of ways.

The purchase of the Rocky Mountain Building is only the beginning of OtterBox’s growth plans for the next few years.

Also in the works is another building just across the street from