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 287-acre campus of Goucher College, less than a mile away.

The 150,000-square-foot office building will be designed by Diane Hoskins, of the national architecture firm Gensler. It is expected to be completed in late 2028 and will be located on six acres toward the front of Goucher’s campus, along Dulaney Valley Drive.

“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. But Whiting-Turner will look to benefit from the charming setting of a college campus, while Goucher will create a revenue stream out of “under-utilized” land, its president said, while providing educational opportunities for students.

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.

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.

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.

Regan said the cost of the facility’s construction is undetermined.

Goucher College President Kent Devereaux said in an interview he’s been approached three separate times by companies seeking to develop the same plot that Whiting-Turner will. He turned other companies down, but was attracted to educational opportunities Whiting-Turner could provide, he said.

The school has an Engineering Science major, but might add minors or majors related to engineering and construction, he added.

The two entities signed a 50-year ground lease for the land, which Goucher owns. They declined to share how much the ground lease is worth, but Devereaux said it will yield millions of dollars.

That’s essential for a school like Goucher, which has about 1,100 undergraduate students. It is increasingly challenging for small schools without massive endowments to operate, Devereaux said, and finding additional revenue streams can be key.

The ground lease will help the college with its two primary expenses: financial aid for students and salaries for faculty.

“We’re always looking for creative ways that we can find new revenue to basically underwrite those two primary things we do,” he said.

Goucher had previously announced plans to add a retirement community, Edenwald Senior Living, on the campus. The college might also partner with other companies going forward, Devereaux said.

“One asset that we have: We have 287 acres,” he said. “And so, with both Edenwald and with Whiting-Turner, we’re taking acreage that’s not making us any money today and we’re turning it into a revenue stream that can then help underwrite our primary mission, which is education.”