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The first time Ed O’Kelly retired, in 2004, he thought it was for good. But two years later, he joined several former colleagues to launch Tigard-based Charter Mechanical Contractors Inc.

“I was happy being retired,” he said. “But, on the other hand, when you’re 49, there’s still more juice left in the engine.”

However, O’Kelly is retiring again. On Wednesday he will step down as Charter Mechanical’s CEO and board chairman, though he will continue to serve on the board. Dan Smith is now company president and board chairman.

Charter Mechanical has benefited significantly from a robust high-tech construction boom, and now has more than 400 employees and $125 million in annual revenues, O’Kelly said. The company is the second-largest mechanical contractor in Oregon as measured by membership in the United Association of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters; the largest is Portland-based Harder Mechanical Contractors Inc.

Retiring young was always a goal for O’Kelly, who experienced early success. In 1984, while working as a sales manager for University Mechanical and Engineering Contractors Inc., he landed a contract with longtime Portland builder Baugh Construction (since sold to Skanska USA Building Inc.) He worked with the Stevenson family, which then owned the Heathman Hotel in Portland.

“They took it down to the bare bones – everything in it was new except for the concrete,” he said. “The plumbing and HVAC systems were all brand new.”

O’Kelly later became regional president of University Mechanical in 1988, at age 34. He has since held key management or ownership roles around Portland.

In 1992, he moved to the Fullman Co., a longtime mechanical contracting firm. He became majority owner and president of the company four years later, but eventually sold his stake to Kinetics, which no longer operates in the Portland area.

About a dozen former Fullman managers who had left Kinetics joined O’Kelly to form Charter Mechanical in summer 2006. The decision to start a new company came from a desire to diversify operations, Smith said.

“They had cut our service department, which Fullman had had since 1906, and decided not to focus on the commercial market,” Smith said. “Kinetics wanted to focus on the semiconductor and process piping market.”

A robust high-tech market has been a boon for Charter Mechanical, which generated about $100 million in revenues from an unnamed customer in Hillsboro each of the last two years, O’Kelly said.

Other customers include German-based SolarWorld in Hillsboro and Lam Research Corp. in Tualatin, he said.

Charter Mechanical specializes in an orbital welding process that ensures the highest purity for pipes used by chip manufacturers.

“There are not that many companies that know how to do this,” O’Kelly said. “The purity levels are insanely clean.”

With the high-tech building boom slowing, however, diversification will be critical for Charter Mechanical, Smith said.

“That was our goal when we started,” he said. “It still is. We want to work in the semiconductor world – that is still true, but we also want to work on downtown high-rises, hotels, office buildings, schools and everything else.”