One of Lawrence’s fast-growing, high-tech companies is moving to an Olathe office park.

Bob LaGarde announced Monday that he was moving his west Lawrence software development company to the Cedar Creek Corporate Park in Olathe. The move will cost Lawrence 27 existing jobs, with average salaries above $40,000 a year. LaGarde, the company’s CEO, said the firm also had plans to create 30 new jobs during the next three years.

Bob LaGarde, center, explains a need to expand in the company's office at 5040 W. 15th St. LaGarde discussed the company's needs in June, when he was pictured with Michael Scott, a software engineer. On Monday, LaGarde announced that the company was moving to an Olathe office park.

LaGarde said the developers of the Olathe office park made an attractive offer to the company, which makes software to help people sell items over the Internet. LaGarde said the unfinished South Lawrence Trafficway also played a role in the company’s decision to move.

“Our access to Kansas City just became pretty much non-negotiable,” LaGarde said.

“A lot of our new employees are coming from the Kansas City area and almost all of our investment dollars are coming from Kansas City.

“Without the trafficway, we decided it didn’t make sense for us to locate on the west side of town. It just doesn’t offer the kind of access to Kansas City that we have to have.”

LaGarde said the company began looking for office space in the eastern part of Lawrence, but found few options. The company was considering building its own space when it was approached by the Olathe developers.

LaGarde said if the trafficway had been complete, he anticipated the company would not have considered moving out of the west Lawrence area.

“It’s a great place for technology companies because you have lots of peers in the area and you have great access to KU,” LaGarde said. “But the trafficway is really critical. It has to happen. The community has to get over that hurdle for it to really be all that it can be.”

The new 8,500-square-foot office space in Olathe, which was previously occupied by former Lawrence start-up company Coach’s Edge, nearly doubles the amount of space the company currently has at its offices at 5040 W. 15th St. LaGarde said he expected the move to be complete by the end of September.

LaGarde, founded in 1996, grew from basically a single-employee operation to nearly 30 employees after its largest product, StoreFront Now, began to catch on with Internet retailers.

The software allows businesses to pay a monthly fee for software that enables them to create online catalogs, shipping systems, accounting systems and other components necessary to sell products over the Internet.