Burns & McDonnell to hire 300

The Houston office of Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co. Inc. intends to hire 300 local employees by 2015, with 100 of those being added to the payroll within the next 18 months.

The additions are part of a nationwide effort by the Kansas City, Mo.-based engineering, architecture and construction firm to create 1,000 new jobs by the end of 2013. That would give Burns & McDonnell approximately 4,000 employees companywide.

The expansion will more than double the local head count, which currently stands at 220 people — 191 employees and 29 contract workers. Seventy percent of the new hires are expected to have professional experience, while the remainder will be new college graduates.

Houston is the largest regional and fastest-growing office for the employee-owned Burns & McDonnell, said John Lionberger, the company’s senior vice president and general manager in Houston.

“The market is favorable for long-term growth,” he said. “We have a significant amount of opportunities coming up.”

More employees are needed in Houston because of growth in energy sectors, including electric transmission, wind farms and solar farms, Lionberger said. The process division also is busy, the firm is involved in a lot of midstream natural gas projects and the construction division is expanding to support the work, he added.

More than half of the Houston office’s business is generated from electric transmission and distribution work. The company is doing design work for CenterPoint Energy Inc. substations that complements a massive Smart Grid project funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

“We’re helping with that implementation,” Lionberger said.

Burns & McDonnell’s local office also works on projects involving aviation, military defense and support facilities, oil and gas processing plants, design-build construction and environmental services.

Large clients include CenterPoint (NYSE: CNP), Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO), First Solar Inc. (NasdaqGS: FSLR) and Horizon Wind Energy LLC, Lionberger said.

Burns & McDonnell is expanding the size of its local office space by 51 percent to accommodate the influx of new employees. The company signed a lease last month for another 20,000 square feet, giving it a total of 59,000 square feet at 1700 West Loop South. The new space will be ready for occupancy this fall.

Joe Peddie of Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc. represented Burns & McDonnell on the lease, while Steve Rocher and Kristen Rabel of CB Richard Ellis Inc. represented the landlord, Younan Properties Inc.