A Newport technology company says it needs more space to expand and will move to a refurbished mill building in Warren.

AVTECH, which makes software and hardware that monitor environmental conditions of computer data centers, has agreed to purchase Cutler Mill for $1.735 million, according to the company’s founder and owner, Michael Sigourney.

The mill, built in 1868, has 41,000 square feet of space in its main building and another 8,000 square feet in an attached structure.

It sits on a 2.13-acre site at Child and Cutler streets.

Sigourney said the company has simply outgrown its current location –– an old mill building near the entrance to the Newport Naval Base. It shares the building with SAIC, a government contractor.

The company said in a news release that it had been trying to purchase an unused school in Newport, but that effort was taking longer than it “could afford to wait.”

“AVTECH has been in desperate need of space for the last year and holding off on hiring new employees because they did not have room to house them,” the company said.

AVTECH has about 30 employees, Sigourney said, and 12 of those were hired last year. Two more job openings are about to be filled, he said.

The company’s products are used to help businesses monitor their data centers –– temperature-controlled facilities where the most-important computers are housed.

Computers work most efficiently at temperatures below 85 degrees, Sigourney said, and AVTECH’s products monitor temperature as well as humidity and can be set up to alert someone if these measurements indicate there is a problem. The equipment also detects power problems and whether a room has been flooded.

He said their products are used in the White House, the Pentagon, the United Nations, space vehicles and at a host of well-known companies such as Google and Microsoft.

Sigourney, who is the sole owner of AVTECH, said he founded the company in 1988 in Newport, Calif., but moved to Rhode Island in 1993 to be closer to Europe and to high-tech publishers based on the East Coast.

He declined to give the company’s annual sales revenue.

The real estate closing for Cutler Mill is scheduled for Dec. 5, Sigourney said, adding that the current owner is David Wescott, who has owned the property since 2002. AVTECH plans to move in by March 1, the company said.

There are several other businesses located in Cutler Mill, including the East Bay Chamber of Commerce, Basically British Tea Room, Imago Art Gallery, Yoga Loft and the Rhode Island Fencing Academy.

“AVTECH plans to keep as many tenants as possible,” the company said in a statement.

However, Sigourney said, the fencing academy will probably have to move because AVTECH needs the space the academy occupies on the third floor.

He said AVTECH plans to invest $500,000 to further refurbish Cutler Mill and may restore its original tower, if Warren’s leaders support the idea.

tbarmann@projo.com