  It is difficult for intermediate-mass X-ray binaries to form compact
intermediate-mass binary pulsars (IMBPs) with a short orbital-period ($\la 3
\rm d$), which have a heavy ($\ga 0.4 M_{\odot}$) CO or ONeMg white dwarf
companions. Since neutron star + He star binaries may experience
common-envelope evolution, they have some advantage to account for the
formation of short orbital-period IMBPs. In this work, we explore the
probability of IMBPs formed by this evolutionary channel. Using Eggleton's
stellar evolution code, considering that the dead pulsars were spun up by the
accreting material and angular momentum from the He star companions, we have
calculated the evolution of a large number of neutron star + He star binaries.
Our simulated results indicate that, the NS + He star evolutionary channel can
produce IMBPs with a WD of $\sim0.5 - 1.1 M_{\odot}$ and an orbital period of
$0.03 - 20$ d, in which pulsars have a spin-period of $1.4 - 200$ ms. Comparing
the calculated results with the observational parameters (spin period and
orbital period) of 9 compact IMBPs, the NS + He star evolutionary channel can
account for the formation of 4 sources. Therefore, NS + He star binaries offer
an alternative evolutionary channel to compact IMBPs.
