CHEYENNE — Quark Inc. indeed is coming to Cheyenne — and its expansion into Wyoming is creating high hopes among Cheyenne business leaders working to diversify the community’s government-based economy.

The Denver-based developer of professional publishing and design software has purchased 62 acres in the Cheyenne Business Parkway and plans to build an 80,000-square-foot order processing and distribution center that will be staffed initially by 50 full-time and part-time employees.

But what is creating the most excitement in Wyoming’s Capital City is the prospect of growth, because Quark president and CEO Fred Ebrahimi, credited for taking the company international in 1988, is already talking about dreams of a one-million square-foot high-tech campus across the road from Cheyenne’s other high-tech landmark, EchoStar Communications Corp.

Ebrahimi said he expects to have a few hundred employees in Cheyenne by the year 2000 and eventually to move its technical activity from Denver.

“It’s obvious that our first building is not going to cover 62 acres … but hopefully, with the proper help from you and the help from our customers worldwide, we could turn that into a million or two square-feet of activity,” he told an enthusiastic Cheyenne audience in announcing the move.

In fact, Ebrahimi and his wife are planning to move to Wyoming themselves and are looking for a ranch to buy. In explaining the move, Ebrahimi said it was one of life’s significant decisions made from the heart.

“It may or may not be logical, but it feels fantastic,” he said.

In welcoming Quark, Gov. Jim Geringer said Quark’s expansion into Wyoming is another sign that major businesses are discovering that Wyoming has a very productive work force and is “the lowest cost place in America to do business.”