Stantec bolsters its North American reach with deal to buy Page
The Edmonton, Alberta-based AE firm Stantec disclosed this morning that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Page, a 1,400-employee AE firm headquartered in Washington D.C.
The acquisition, once completed, would make Stantec the industry’s second-largest AE firm in North America. The combination will increase Stantec’s expertise and resources in such areas as advanced manufacturing, data centers, and healthcare; and strengthen Stantec’s offering in mission-critical, academic, civic, cultural, aviation, science and technology, and commercial sectors. The acquisition also expands Stantec into cleanroom design, and fabrication.
This deal requires regulatory approvals. If all goes as planned, the acquisition should be completed sometime this summer. Its financial terms were not disclosed by either company. Stantec intends to pay for this purchase with existing funds and credit facilities.
Upon completion of this deal, Stantec’s US Building practice will increase by approximately 35%, and its U.S. workforce will expand to about 13,500 people across all of the firm's five divisions. The acquisition will double Stantec’s presence in Texas.
Both parties see growth opportunities
“Our strategic plans were to achieve domestic primacy and global influence for our team. Joining Stantec positions us to accelerate these plans,” said Thomas McCarthy, Washington, D.C.-based CEO of Page, in a prepared statement. McCarthy and Page’s management team are staying on with the company, according to a Stantec spokesperson.
In a phone interview with BD+C this morning, McCarthy said that, from Page’s perspective, its integration with Stantec gives Page a “global platform” from which to pursue business outside of the U.S. He expects that this operational integration should be completed by the end of this year, except for a Government Services practice that will operate separately, at least in the short run.
In a phone interview with BD+C, Leonard Castro, Stantec’s Executive Vice President-Buildings, said that Stantec started researching U.S. AE firms as possible acquisition targets about a year ago. Stantec, with 2,600 of its 5,500-plus Buildings division employees working in the U.S., was attracted to Page—many of whose U.S. locations overlap with Stantec’s—because “it would immediately diversify us in each of our locations.”
McCarthy added that Page had become more receptive to being acquired after its own recent experiences buying companies, such as its 2023 purchases of New York-based Davis Brody Bond and Austin-based SE firm DB Structures.
Wide-ranging design portfolio
Page, based in Austin, Texas, was founded in 1898. It currently operates out of 20 cities in the U.S. and Mexico. Page’s revenue from architectural and engineering design work in 2023 was $546.2 million, according to BD+C’s annual Giants ranking. Its signature design projects include U.S. embassies in several countries; the National September 11 Memorial and Museum; the Terminal B transformation program at George W. Bush International Airport in Houston; the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library and Museum in Hyde Park, N.Y.; and the 735,000-sf mixed-use John A. Paulson Center at New York University.
Stantec, which celebrated its 75th anniversary last year, generated $880.1 million in architectural and engineering design revenue in 2023. Stantec and Page have a collaborative history that includes the six-story, 150,000-sf Brian D. Jellison Outpatient Cancer Pavilion and seven-story, 200,000-sf Outpatient Cancer Center Institute for Sarasota (Fla.) Memorial Health Care System.
Healthcare, along with advanced manufacturing, Higher Ed, and federal government projects are the sectors that Castro thought Stantec would benefit most immediately from his firm’s acquisition of Page. He also believed that Stantec’s locations in Texas (with 700 employees), Washington D.C. (with 204 employees), and its locations serving the western U.S. (both Stantec’s and Page’s fastest-growing region) will see rapider expansion because of this purchase.
