HNTB Corp. will move its regional office and 90 employees from the far northwest side of Milwaukee to downtown, the company announced Thursday.
The Kansas City-based engineering firm, with its Milwaukee office currently in the Park Place office park, will take up approximately 24,000 square feet on the 19th and 20th floors in the Two-Fifty building at 250 E. Wisconsin Ave, according to a news release. The new office space will also allow the company to grow its headcount, with room for up to 120 employees.
HNTB will be moving its infrastructure planners, engineers and other professional workers into its new downtown office this summer. The move puts the company closer to its clients and projects.
“Moving downtown marks an exciting moment in HNTB’s growth in southeast Wisconsin,” Mark Kaminski, vice president of HNTB, said in the release. “HNTB has provided infrastructure solutions to our clients in Wisconsin for more than 60 years and we are pleased to be joining the vibrant downtown Milwaukee community and investing in a dynamic workplace for our dedicated employees. Downtown Milwaukee is becoming a flourishing destination for engineering, innovation and technology talent and we are eager to be part of that momentum.”
The firm specifically selected the Two-Fifty building because of its centralized downtown location, according to the release. The company said access to transportation features such as The Hop streetcar, Interstate 794 and Milwaukee County’s planned East-West Bus Rapid Transit system also factored into the decision.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett praised the company’s decision to relocate.
“Downtown’s accessibility to the region, walkability, amenities and attractions provide an energetic and welcoming place for current and future generations of our workforce,” Barrett said in the release. “The vitality of downtown Milwaukee is key to the strength of the region and state.”
HNTB has worked on some of the very projects that are often credited with the economic revitalization of Milwaukee’s downtown, including The Hop streetcar system and Fiserv Forum. Other projects the firm has worked on include the Zoo interchange, the Interstate 94 North-South freeway project and Jackson and Wilson Park Creek rehab projects.
HNTB provides professional services to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, city of Milwaukee, Metropolitan Milwaukee Sewerage District, Milwaukee County and the Milwaukee Bucks. The firm, which also has an office in Madison, employs more than 115 full-time professionals in Wisconsin.
The move by HNTB is only the latest in a general migration of businesses into the heart of the city. Engineering firm CH2M is moving its offices from the Honey Creek Corporate Center in western Milwaukee to the Schlitz Park office complex just north of downtown. Additionally, GRAEF-USA Inc. plans to move its office downtown into The Avenue.
