A Lawrence contractor is working to expand its offices, shops and parking lot in eastern Lawrence.

Huxtable & Associates Inc., a mechanical, electrical and design-build contractor at 815 E. 12th St., is planning to spend up to $1 million on the project, said Smitty Belcher, owner of Lenexa-based P1 Group, which owns the business and four others in Lenexa and Topeka.

The project would make room for hiring another 30 to 40 office workers, project managers, estimators and union craftspeople — including plumbers, pipefitters, sheet metal workers and electricians — who would command salaries ranging from $40,000 to $60,000.

“These aren’t $10-an-hour jobs,” Belcher said.

The firm’s growing workload in and around Lawrence is driving the need for the expansion project, he said. Among the biggest projects is the $40 million Multidisciplinary Research Building on Kansas University’s West Campus.

The Lawrence location also allows the company to handle commercial, institutional and other projects in Topeka, Manhattan and other out-of-town jobs, Belcher said.

“We need to add people and we need more space,” Belcher said. “Our business is growing.”

Today, Huxtable & Associates has 120 people working out of the Lawrence site, Belcher said, and that number would grow to 150 or 160 once the three-month expansion project is in place.

In 1995, Huxtable & Associates added onto its offices. The latest project would add 1,920 square feet to the pipe-fabrication shop, and 5,760 square feet to the metal-fabrication shop.

The shop work would create additional warehouse space and a second floor for more offices.

The project also would drive the need for more parking. Huxtable & Associates seeks to expand its parking lot to the east, onto what is now a 300-foot section of Oregon Street, south of 12th Street.

The request goes to the Lawrence City Commission for a public hearing Tuesday night. The meeting begins at 6:35 p.m. at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.

Before the road went in, City Manager Mike Wildgen said, the land would have been part of the properties on both sides. Today, those owners are Huxtable & Associates to the west, and the city of Lawrence — which bought parcels to make way for a drainage project — to the east.

“They’re requesting that the existing right of way be vacated, and they want to use it,” he said. “In that area, that’s not an unreasonable situation to ask for.”

Huxtable & Associates has offered to create a recreational path adjacent to the property, and allow for public use of the new parking lot to provide access to the trails.

“I use those trails myself to bike and run,” Belcher said.

Belcher has owned Huxtable & Associates since 1983. P1 Group’s other companies are Huxtable LT Service in Topeka, and A.D. Jacobson, ADJ-HUX Service and U.S. Electrical in Lenexa.