A group of former Austin Co. architects, designers and project managers who were responsible for overseeing the construction of The Kansas City (Mo.) Star’s new production plant left the company to join an engineering firm that will now be responsible for completing the $199 million project.

Among the employees joining Kansas City-based Burns & McDonnell from The Austin Co. are Mike Pusich and Fred Heid, the company said. The duo, along with another 18 former Austin employees who worked at the company’s Kansas City office, are now part of Burns & McDonnell’s newly formed Media Facilities Group, according to Principal Ted Beer, who also left Austin to join the 106-year-old Burns & McDonnell.

“Our core area will be looking at convergence projects,” where companies want to construct a building housing both print and broadcast facilities,” Beer said. “We think there is a lot of work out there. Convergence is a big issue, which means there will be more combined facilities.”

Beer said work on The Star’s downtown project is scheduled to be completed this month.

Meantime, Austin, which was unable to finish the project when it filed for bankruptcy in October, said it agreed to be purchased by Kajima USA Inc., a unit of the Japanese construction management company.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court conditionally approved the asset sale of Cleveland-based Austin Dec. 22. It’s expected to close in the near future, Kajima said.

Austin said it will continue normal operations pending completion of the sale. Core assets to be acquired by Kajima include Austin’s Cleveland, Atlanta and Irvine, Calif., units. Kajima said it will continue to operate the business under the Austin name.

The Austin Media Group, a venture formed last year between Austin Aecom and Austin to market construction and engineering services to newspapers, is unaffected by the filing or the asset sale.