BELOIT, WI (WTAQ) - A producer of medical isotopes will open a new facility in Beloit.

NorthStar Medical Technologies is having the firm of Hendricks Commercial Properties build a 100,000 square foot plant which NorthStar will lease.

Construction is due to begin next year, and the facility is expected to open in 2014. The plant will only be half as large as NorthStar originally planned.

The firm said it has improved its production process, and it’s allowing NorthStar to spend less to build and equip the new structure. NorthStar did not say how much money it would save.

Hendricks Commercial Properties is owned by Diane Hendricks, who helped grow ABC Supply into the nation’s largest wholesaler of exterior building supplies. She said her firm’s partnership with NorthStar will add more jobs to Beloit, and raise the community’s national profile as a prime location for high-tech businesses.

NorthStar Medical Technologies is based in Madison. It makes radio-isotopes for the field of nuclear medicine.