May 11—ROCHESTER — Waters Medical Systems, a company with deep roots in Rochester dating back to 1958, will soon move into a new space on the former IBM campus.

Waters Medical, which is the U.S. subsidiary of France-based Institut Georges Lopez or IGL, signed a lease in April for a 4,100-square-foot spot in the Rochester Technology Campus at 2900 37th Street Northwest.

Matt Gove of Rochester's Realty Growth Inc. handled the leasing deal.

Waters Medical Managing Director Michael Christ explained the company decided to move from its longtime manufacturing facility at 2112 15th St NW "due to production termination and downsizing opportunities."

"Our previous facility ... was used for manufacturing our kidney machine perfusion. However, we have decided to continue that production in France for scale economy reasons," wrote Christ.

The shift means that Waters Medical will base its U.S. headquarters in the new Technology Campus space and an electronic laboratory to develop medical equipment for organ perfusion.

Christ anticipates the new space will be ready for use by the end of September. Once up and running, Waters Medical will have 10 employees working at the Technology Campus lab and office.

This is the latest milestone for Waters, which was founded in Rochester as Waters Instruments by George Waters in 1954. It grew to a large and influential company, with hundreds on staff.

George Waters first came to Rochester to become a manager of Waters-Conley, which was owned by his father Glenn Waters. The company then made phonographs and home milk pasteurizers. George Waters saw an opportunity in medical devices and created a company to make heart and lung monitors created by Mayo Clinic.

In 2007, an IGL company purchased Waters for $5 million from Zareba Systems, then based in Ellendale, Minn.