The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, one of the largest private companies in the Baltimore region, will soon relocate its headquarters for the first time in more than 50 years.

It isn’t going far, though. The general contractor and construction management company will remain in Towson, leaving an office it shares in Hampton Plaza for a new building on the campus of Goucher College, less than a mile away.

The 150,000-square-foot office building will be designed by the national architect Gensler and is expected to be completed in late 2028.

“In the entire history of our company, and that’s 116 years, we’ve never had a building of our own,” Tim Regan, Whiting-Turner’s president and CEO, said in an interview Wednesday.

Seating its corporate headquarters on a college campus is a unique move. In a Wednesday news release, Goucher and Whiting-Turner said they expect to use the new building as a “hub for introducing young people to career opportunities in today’s high-tech and innovative design and construction industries.”

Whiting-Turner approached Goucher months ago about the possibility of building a new headquarters on its campus, Regan said. The company also “casually” looked at other nearby locations, he said, before moving forward with Goucher.

“When you get an opportunity to land in, really, a beautiful campus setting, where you have a chance to take a walk around or enjoy some trees, or what have you, we just thought it was too good to pass up,” said Regan, one of only three presidents in Whiting-Turner’s history.

College campuses have historically been closed off from surrounding areas, but Regan said that has changed in recent years. Whiting-Turner completes many university projects, and Regan said he has noticed schools becoming less of academic islands.

“Campuses are becoming very much more community-facing and the borders, if you will, on campuses are way more porous,” he said.

Goucher College President Kent Devereaux said in the news release that “this partnership is future-focused.”

“[It] takes an innovative approach to business development, education, and community engagement while opening the door to collaborative experiential learning opportunities and workforce pipelines for future generations,” he said.

The two entities signed a 50-year ground lease for the land, which Goucher owns. Regan declined to share how much the ground lease is worth and said it’s yet to be determined how much construction of the facility will cost.

Like its old building, Whiting-Turner will construct its new headquarters.

“It’s not a sensation that you get to have very often,” Regan said of constructing a building that Whiting-Turner itself will occupy.

Founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology classmates in 1909, Whiting-Turner is a national builder. It has a cluster of offices on the East Coast, but has more than 60 locations spread across the country.

It employs about 5,000 people in total, with roughly 1,000 based in the Baltimore area.