M&A activity at U.S. AEC firms up slightly

Total mergers and acquisitions in the AEC industry hit 171 in 2012, up slight from the 169 deals in 2011, according to consulting firm Morrissey Goodale, Newton, Mass. (www.morrisseygoodale.com).

One recent acquisition: Gantt Huberman Architects, a 26-person architecture/interiors firm in Charlotte, N.C., by Bergmann Associates, an architecture-engineering-planning firm headquartered in Rochester, N.Y. This makes the twelfth office for Bergmann and gives it a toehold in the Carolinas, according to Morrissey Goodale. Bergman now has 375 employees.

Meanwhile, supergiant Canadian A/E design firm Stantec, Edmonton, Alb. (2011 revenues: $463,300,000) was set to close on the acquisition of Greenhorne & O’Mara, a 520-employee engineering firm in Laurel, Md. Stantec also said it would pick up 21-person Architecture 2000, Moncton, N.B.

Other recent M&A activity of note:

Moseley Architects (Richmond, Va.), known as a specialist in public-sector work, merged with BeeryRio (Springfield, Va.), a specialist in the design of senior housing.
Haskell, an integrated designer, engineering, and construction firm based in Jacksonville, Fla., purchased H.R. Gray (Columbus, Ohio), a program management and construction services firm specializing in municipal projects.
Canadian giant IBI Group (Toronto) finalized the deal for M-E Companies (Columbus, Ohio), an 80-member CE firm. +

Boyd R. Zoccola is Chair and Chief Elected Officer of BOMA International. A BOMA member since 1994, he has served on the Executive, Finance, Investment, and Medical/Healthcare Facilities Committees. An Indiana Real Estate Principal Broker and a board member of the Real Estate Round Table, he is Executive Vice President of Hokanson Companies, Inc., of Indianapolis, and has been involved in the development of $600 million worth of real estate. On a volunteer basis, Zoccola was president of Horizon House and a board member of Girls, Inc. He holds a BA in biology from Indiana University.