As domestic development slows in the face of tighter construction lending, more architects are looking abroad to keep busy. Two local companies are finding work in China and India.

"The economies are booming in those countries," says Jeff Davis of Raleigh-based JDavis Architects. "There's almost unlimited opportunity."

His firm is developing urban-design guidelines for a "special economic zone," which essentially is a small city created by local developers. The guidelines govern 11 high-rises just west of New Delhi. They'll soar 17 to 25 stories high atop parking decks for 17,000 cars.

The firm's India contracts account for about one-sixth of its annual revenue. "Right now we have our toe in the water," Davis says. "But it could get more significant."

Davis will visit New Delhi next month to make a pitch to design some of those buildings, and to connect with other developers.

His introduction to Indian projects came via a New Delhi firm with ties to N.C. State University.

"It's a relationship-driven culture in India," Davis says. "You don't come by that work by just straight-ahead marketing. You need introductions by respectable people."

The same applies to JS Architecture, a Raleigh firm that is chasing business in China. One of the firm's employees, Yuling Mao, hails from outside Shanghai, and helped JS get business there.

"You don't even want to think about doing work there unless you have connections," says Jimmy Smith, the firm's principal.

For two years, his firm has been working on several mixed-use projects -- ranging from 420,000 to 1.5 million square feet, plus oodles of underground parking -- west of Shanghai. It is now chasing bigger deals throughout eastern China.

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Some development-services companies are looking to the Triangle to boost their workloads.

* Flaherty & Collins Properties of Indianapolis opened a Southeastern construction division in Cary. The company, which built the 274-apartment complex Exchange at Brier Creek in northeast Raleigh, is building six other Southeast projects including 1,550 units. It leased offices in MacGregor Park. Paul Bradford oversees the division.

* Hardin Construction, the Atlanta general contractor building RBC Plaza in downtown Raleigh for Highwoods Properties, opened a Raleigh office at 3737 Glenwood Ave. Roxboro native Tom Booth heads the division.

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Dave Lindner has hit the exit.

The one-time director of operations in Highwoods Properties' Triangle division joins First Industrial Realty Trust as a senior vice president. He'll be in the Chicago-based company's Atlanta office.

Highwoods let Lindner go in October, as the Raleigh real estate investment trust was shrinking its local portfolio.

He will oversee leasing, asset management and customer relations for First Industrial's portfolio in the eastern U.S. and Toronto.

He joins Bob Cutlip, Highwoods' former Triangle-division senior veep. Cutlip left Highwoods in March 2006 to become managing director of First Industrial's East region. Cutlip was soon promoted to executive vice president in charge of First Industrial's North American investments.

Lindner also worked with Cutlip at Duke Realty's Triangle office.