Masco Cabinetry will be moving 350 employees into a new corporate headquarters in Ann Arbor Township sometime this fall.

But before the first workers can establish their offices in the building - the former Flint Ink headquarters near Dixboro Road - the company will have to complete its first expansion: Adding 177 spaces to the parking lot.

“They’re expecting 350 employees immediately (upon move-in),” said township Supervisor Michael Moran.

But subsequent additional hires will push that number closer to 450.

And that creates a problem: The building has 353 existing spaces.

So Mark Perry, director of real estate services for Masco Corp. in Taylor, has been working with a team to reconfigure the parking lot and carve out the extra spaces.

Some of the work can be done by correcting some inefficiencies in the existing parking surface, he said. One example: Restriping to gain more spaces.

But the rest of the work will involve adding pavement to two sides of the existing parking lot that serves the building on Arrowhead Drive.

Those plans likely will go in front of the township’s Planning Commission on July 6.

In the meantime, parking is just one of the projects at the 150,000-square-foot building as it’s transformed from lab and office space for an ink manufacturer into the corporate headquarters of what is becoming - through Masco division mergers and the move to Ann Arbor Township - the largest cabinet company in North America. The company announced in March it was moving its headquarters here, bringing with it hundreds of new jobs to the area from other locations.

Perry said interior renovations are under way as the eastern part of the building - formerly a complete wet lab area - is converted into office space. Offices in the west wing are being renovated, too. Hobbs + Black, the Ann Arbor-based architecture firm, is leading the design team.

The former lab space is what Perry described as “dozens of little lab rooms made out of concrete block wall.”

Now, he said, it will be “converted to a 100 percent open floor plan.”

Move-in dates aren’t set yet, Perry said, as the company consolidates offices in Adrian and Ohio into the Ann Arbor Township location. The building’s ribbon-cutting should be celebrated by Oct. 1, so fall is the likely timing.

“Certainly by the end of the year everyone would be moved in,” Perry said. “Then we can ramp up for the new hires.”

The move to the Ann Arbor area has been met with a lot of support, Perry added. Corporate officials have been meeting with officials and neighbors to build a relationship.

By the time the company moves into the building, Perry said, “I think everyone will be very proud to have the business as a new member of the Ann Arbor business family.”

Paula Gardner is Business News Director of AnnArbor.com. Contact her at 734-623-2586 or by email. Sign up for the weekly Business Review newsletter, distributed every Thursday, here.