INC Research, an expanding company that assists drug makers with clinical trials around the globe, has reaffirmed its commitment to keeping its headquarters in Raleigh.
The company has signed long-term leases in two Highwoods Properties buildings. INC extended an existing lease for 58,000 square feet in a North Raleigh building and signed a second long-term lease for 60,000 square feet in a building about three miles away.
"It will certainly accommodate growth that will occur in Raleigh," said Trisha Vonder Reith, an INC spokeswoman. "We're pretty well set for a while."
The deal is a sizable victory for Raleigh-based Highwoods, which snagged INC from a competitor at a time few companies are expanding.
The office vacancy rate in the Triangle was nearly 19 percent in the first quarter, up from 16 percent a year ago, according to a Grubb & Ellis/Thomas Linderman Graham survey of 43 million square feet of office space in Wake, Durham and Orange counties.
INC has been leasing space in the 4700 Falls of Neuse building owned by Boston-based Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. Vonder Reith said that lease is up at the end of the year.
The company's new lease is at Highwoods Tower II, just off the Beltline near Atlantic Avenue.
INC already leases space in Highwoods' 4800 North Park building.
Vonder Reith said the move, which will result in about 4,000 square feet of additional space, made economic sense for INC.
"It was very favorable lease terms at the new spot and really a better positioning for us financially," she said.
INC, along with Quintiles and PPD, is part of the Triangle's cadre of companies that specialize in drug testing.
INC's nearly 2,000 employees help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies conduct clinical trials in 40 countries. The company has about 475 employees in Raleigh.
In 2007, state officials promised INC incentive grants worth as much as $14.85 million if it met goals for creating and keeping jobs in Raleigh.
In March, the N.C. Department of Commerce's Economic Investment Committee said INC had fallen short of the hiring goals it needed to meet to receive state incentives.
INC created 104 of a needed 171 jobs.
The maximum amount of state incentives it could have received this year was $96,903.
