Centennial lures McKim

NCSU students are potential hires

Engineering firm McKim & Creed plans to hire as many as 100 people in the next several years. And it's scoping N.C. State University as its recruiting ground.

The company is moving its Triangle division to bigger offices on N.C. State's Centennial Campus in southwest Raleigh, where it hopes to establish relationships with engineering students through internships and other training initiatives, and then pluck the best and the brightest when they graduate, chief executive Michael Creed said.

"There is a dearth of talent available in our industry," he said. "There's more work to be done across the United States, engineeringwise, than there are qualified people to do it."

The Wilmington company does planning, engineering, surveying and mapping for developers and municipalities. It is growing in the Triangle as commercial and institutional development, and the infrastructure consulting that comes along with it, surge.

Its Triangle division, one of 16 offices in four states, is the company's biggest, with about one-quarter of its 500 employees. It is home to many of the company's top executives, including Creed.

McKim & Creed plans to hire 75 to 100 employees locally in the next three to four years, he said.

The company agreed to lease 32,000 square feet at Centennial's Venture VI office building and plans to sell the 20,000-square-foot MacGregor Park building it owns in Cary after it moves in early 2008, said Guy Harvey, the Staubach Co. broker who represented McKim & Creed.

It's the latest boost for the 1,100-acre Centennial campus, which was designed to be a business and academic center, with clusters of homes, restaurants, classrooms and offices.

In May, Swiss power conglomerate ABB said it would add about 60 jobs at its power systems subsidiary based at Centennial.