Medtronic MiniMed, Inc. (Medtronic MiniMed), a diabetes division of Medtronic, Inc. is considering San Antonio and Kansas City, as possible locations for an expansion project expected to generate about 1,500 jobs in the next five years. The unit is looking for a 180,000-square-foot facility and expects to conclude the expansion by the end of 2009.

“We looked at cities in all 50 states,” Sabicer said. “But it’s come down to Kansas City and San Antonio.”

The winner is expected to be announced by mid-April, he said.

Sabicer said Medtronic had considered all types of new-facility options, including new construction, during its nine-month site search. But because the division wants to complete the expansion by the end of this year and perhaps as early as the summer, it probably will lease or sublease existing space, he said.

The division anticipates the need for 180,000 square feet at the expansion location, Sabicer said. The Applebee’s headquarters, which was the only one of “several” Kansas City-area sites Sabicer mentioned by name, is 178,000 square feet.

The Applebee’s headquarters, 11201 Renner Blvd., celebrated its grand opening in January 2008 in the Southlake Technology Park. But Applebee’s parent company, DineEquity Inc. (formerly IHOP Corp.), recently listed the entire building for sublease.

The headquarters building is home to about 325 Applebee’s employees who support about 480 company-owned restaurants, Miles McMillin, an Applebee’s spokesman said recently. But Applebee’s recent adoption of a two- to three-year plan to become a 98 percent franchised system will diminish the chain’s need for the Lenexa building.

In contrast, Medtronic’s diabetes division is in dire need of additional space. The division employs about 1,500 in a 150,000-square-foot facility in Northridge, Calif., just outside Los Angeles. The division has no room to expand there, Sabicer said, and wouldn’t want to anyway.

“We’re looking to open new facilities in new areas,” he said.

“We have the largest share of the insulin-pump therapy market in the United States,” Sabicer said.

The division also makes and markets continuous glucose monitoring devices and diabetes-management software.

Sabicer would not say what types of jobs would be offered at the expansion location. But he said almost all of them would be “new local jobs” filled by college graduates.

“We certainly want to make sure it’s environmentally friendly, as well,” he said.

The Applebee’s headquarters was built to the silver-level standards of the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.