Sophy Yam, left, and Sang Voeul assemble pneumatic tubes at Unetixs’ manufacturing plant at the Quonset Business Park.

A company that grew from a North Kingstown basement to become a world leader in vascular diagnostic testing equipment has a new 30,000-square-foot headquarters and assembly facility in the town’s Quonset Business Park.

Unetixs Vascular Inc. bought 3.8 acres in the state-owned business park only two years after leasing a 16,500-square-foot building in the park. The decision to move out of the smaller building wasn’t exactly the company’s, according to chief executive officer Peter A. Moscovita. “We were in there exactly two months when we got a notice from the Department of Transportation that they were taking it by eminent domain.” The land where Unetixs rented its building was needed for Air National Guard facilities at Quonset State Airport.

Moscovita, whose company had been in smaller facilities on Post Road in North Kingstown, said the eminent domain action made him think twice about where his company should be. “We resisted the temptation to get lured away by another state,” he said.

Part of that was personal. Moscovita, a native of the United Kingdom, came to Rhode Island in the 1960s with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as a contract manager. He lived in North Kingstown when he and two partners founded the company during the state’s banking crisis. “We started off in a basement in North Kingstown, my basement,” he said. He still lives in Rhode Island, in Portsmouth.

But part of the decision to stay was practical, Moscovita said. The company didn’t want to change ZIP codes or phone numbers.

The company makes a form of ultrasound system that is used in the early detection of Peripheral Artery Disease, which can be a precursor to heart attack or stroke. Unetixs manufactures parts under contract in the United States and China and assembles the systems in Quonset Point, Moscovita said. Its machines sell for $10,000 to $70,000 each.

The company has 42 employees at its headquarters and another 8 or 10 at sales offices throughout the United States and in London, he said.

Although the company’s facilities nearly doubled in size in two years, that’s not a sign that the business grew that much during the period, Moscovita said. “We made it big enough so that we could expand.”

And the company is using only 1.8 acres of its site, leaving 2 acres for expansion.

In addition to its business operations, Unetixs will also host a training facility where medical personnel can learn how to use the company’s equipment.

Moscovita said his company acquired the land and built the building with financing from Citizens Bank and without state assistance.UNETIXS

Founded: 1988

Ownership: Private partnership

Headquarters: North Kingstown

Employees: 50 (42 in R.I.)

Makes: Medical diagnostic equipment

Revenues: About $10 million

pparker@projo.com