Kemin Industries Inc. this morning announced a major expansion project that will triple the size of its southeast Des Moines headquarters campus and allow it to add nearly 100 employees within the next five years.

Plans for the $30 million project include a new headquarters building that will be constructed along the planned Southeast Connector that will extend from downtown east to U.S. Highway 65. Kemin also plans to add six new manufacturing facilities as well as three additional research buildings. The global nutritional ingredient manufacturing company, founded nearly 50 years ago by R.W. and Mary Nelson, employs approximately 1,200 people in 60 countries, with about 320 based in Des Moines.

Because Kemin has outgrown its existing campus at 2100 Maury St., “we had a pretty clear choice,” said Chris Nelson, Kemin’s president and CEO. “Are we going to stay in Des Moines, or are we going to look elsewhere?”

To stay and expand in Des Moines, Kemin reached agreements with the city of Des Moines and Polk County to acquire approximately 20 acres of land immediately north of its headquarters.

The city, which operates a maintenance service center for several of its departments there, plans to move the center west to a location between Southeast Fourth and Ninth streets on the Southeast Connector. The city plans to cede a portion of Scott Avenue, which currently divides the city land from Kemin’s headquarters, to the company for a private road.

Kemin, which estimates its products reach half the world’s population every day, specializes in producing supplemental ingredients that extend the shelf life of human foods and pet foods as well nutritional supplements such as lutein that improve eye health. The company operates eight manufacturing facilities worldwide.

The first phase of Kemin’s multiphase plan calls for construction of a new research facility next spring that will be used to extract an antioxidant ingredient from spearmint. And by this time next year, Kemin will break ground on the first of its new research and development buildings. The headquarters, which will be fronted by the Southeast Connector, will be the final piece of the expansion in 2014.

“This project is a win-win,” Des Moines City Manager Rick Clark said. “It adds new revenue to the city’s tax base, and Kemin achieves part of its vision of an overall global expansion plan that will take the company to the next level.”

The Iowa Economic Development Board is expected to consider a direct monetary award and tax incentives for the project when it meets later this week. Details of the company’s request were not available.