It started out with a six-member staff, but a Bowling Green-based educational group has now outgrown its current headquarters.

The Green River Regional Educational Cooperative, a group that services 225 schools and 32 districts in the region, broke ground Wednesday on a new facility at the Kentucky TriModal Transpark.

“One of the innovative things about the transpark is it very early on recognized blending education with economic development,” Bowling Green Mayor Elaine Walker said.

GRREC offers services such as development and technology training to educators. In the past 10 years, the staff has grown to nearly 40.

That’s more staff members than GRREC’s current space at Western Kentucky University’s Tate Page Hall can contain.

But the move to the transpark is not just for space purposes. GRREC also wants an update.

“We feel it’s important for schools in the region to have a state-of-the-art training center that is equipped with technology,” said Liz Storey, GRREC executive director. “In many ways, we’re an ideal partnership. They represent the future in many ways, and we certainly serve the future in many ways.”

The transpark, which broke ground in 2003, houses three industries: Bowling Green Metalforming, American Howa Kentucky Inc. and Cannon Automotive Solutions.

And, with the addition of GRREC, the number of educational facilities in the transpark will match the number of industrial hubs.

Bowling Green Technical College and the Warren County Technology Center are located at the transpark.

“It’s not your usual industrial park,” said Dan Preston, vice president of the transpark and vice president of economic development for the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce.

The transpark is designed to be environmentally friendly with storm water separator systems and a no-idle policy for trucks, which limits the amount of fossil fuels emitted, Preston said.

Because it is built to be more eco-friendly, businesses pay more to locate at the transpark than they might at other industrial parks.

“It takes a special type of client to do that,” Preston said. “They could have gone elsewhere and operated at a lesser cost.”

The new GRREC facility costs about $2.8 million, which is funded through state and federal grants and membership fees.

Officials project the 14,000-square-foot office will be finished in May 2009.

“It will serve as a central point in the region for excellent training, excellent networking opportunities, idea exchange, research and development of a better classroom,” Storey said.