HAVERHILL — It's as if the candidates were working together — but don't expect either of them to admit it.

Mayoral challenger John Michitson has said if he is elected, recruiting high-tech companies downtown would be a centerpiece of his economic development agenda. He has singled out the Nofsker Building at 145 Essex St. for its affordable and abundant office space.

Yesterday, Mayor James Fiorentini announced that he has recruited a global software and telecommunications company for that very building.

Homisco Inc. recently left its longtime home in Melrose and moved to Haverhill, bringing with it 28 jobs, and plans to add 12 more. Several Haverhill residents have been hired, including some who will work from their homes as telecommuters, the mayor's aide, Andrew Herlihy, said.

Fiorentini said the company's owner, Ronald Contrado, is an old fraternity brother of his from Tufts University. The mayor said the two men had been working on moving the company to Haverhill for more than a year.

"I love what Haverhill has to offer — a great building in a great downtown, expedited permitting, a talented work force and competitive real estate," Contrado said. "Haverhill definitely represents a situation in which we can further grow our company."

In addition to having an abundance of affordable office space, Herlihy said the Nofsker Building is in a so-called "historically underutilized business" zone. The special zone that includes Essex Street gives companies that apply for federal jobs an advantage when they bid for such jobs against companies that aren't in a HUB zone, Herlihy said.

"They don't have to be the low-bidder to get a federal contract," Herlihy said, noting that Homisco competes for federal work. "They only have to be in the top three."

According to its Web site, Homisco provides software systems used in the fields of education, finance, government, health care, hospital, legal and retail. The company, which Contrado founded in 1981, has more than 4,000 customers in 150 countries, according to the Web site.

Michitson has said filling downtown's vacant office and business properties with high-tech companies and specialty retail stores should be the focus of the next mayor now that much housing has been built in the area during Fiorentini's six years as mayor.

"This is exactly what I have been pitching for a very long time," Michitson said of the Homisco announcement. "Let's fill the office space downtown, which will increase foot traffic and open doors for specialty retail, a bookstore, theater and new eateries. This is the future of downtown Haverhill."

Fiorentini has focused on revitalizing downtown by converting old and mostly vacant shoe factories into large rental developments, enhancing property along the Merrimack River, and developing a restaurant district on Washington Street.

Under Fiorentini's watch, the Cordovan apartment complex opened two years ago and the Hamel Mill Lofts is nearing completion, adding hundreds of rental units to downtown. A third large apartment development by an affiliate of the Boston Archdiocese also is planned. The city recently finished building a new boardwalk along the river and construction is expected to begin in the spring or summer on a 300-plus space parking garage near the train station.

Referencing a market analysis commissioned by the Fiorentini administration in 2007, Michitson has said downtown lacks major office space users and market-rate residential units, typically condominiums in urban settings.

Michitson's vision for downtown is that buildings like Nofsker's, which has more than 50,000 square feet of available industrial and office space, would serve as "feeder" sites for startup companies in areas such as renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, environmentally-friendly industries, robotics and non-hazardous biotechnology.

As they grow, those companies would later move to the city's industrial and business parks like the ones in Ward Hill and on Hilldale Avenue, Michitson said. Workers for those companies would be the kind of residents able to afford condominiums, he said.

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