Moseley Architects’ headquarters at 3200 Norfolk St. in Scott’s Addition. (Courtesy of Moseley Architects)
Having tested out the waters there over the past year, a Richmond-based architecture firm is taking a bigger bite out of the South Carolina coast with an acquisition of a frequent collaborator.
Moseley Architects, headquartered in Scott’s Addition, is purchasing Cummings & McCrady, a Charleston-based architecture and engineering firm that it’s worked with on projects since before it set up an outpost there in February.
The non-cash deal is set to close Dec. 31. Terms were not disclosed.
Moseley, which had been operating in Charleston out of a coworking space, will take Cummings & McCrady’s office at 44-D Markfield Drive as its 11th office location. All of Cummings & McCrady’s six employees will come over in the deal, including Principal Ben Whitener, who will become a shareholder with Moseley.
CEO Stewart Roberson said Moseley had been eyeing the Charleston market for three or four years. It began talks about potentially joining forces with Cummings & McCrady about 18 months ago.
The firm, which was formed through a merger in 1957 and has roots dating back to 1911, first collaborated with Moseley in 2006 on an elementary school renovation in the Charleston area, Roberson said.
Stewart Roberson
“Over those 18 months, those discussions became more and more promising, particularly as we won new work together,” Roberson said.
While those conditions were seemingly complicated with the arrival of the pandemic, Roberson said the circumstances in fact presented an opportune time to go forward with a deal.
Cummings & McCrady is Moseley’s third acquisition in eight years, having acquired Fairfax-based firm BeeryRio in 2012 and Baltimore-based Marks Thomas in 2017.
“During times like these, it’s not unusual for firms like ours to seize the opportunities to strengthen our position in the marketplace by aligning ourselves with other firms who are similarly motivated,” Roberson said. “The economic circumstances make opportunities like these more attractive from a business perspective, and especially from a future growth perspective.”
He added, “The pandemic, we would expect, will wane and eventually end. But our business interest will extend well beyond the pandemic in the decades ahead.”
While Moseley has needed to adjust to the pandemic, reducing its workforce 7 percent since its arrival in March, Roberson said the firm, which with this deal will total 271 employees, remains 10 percent off what he said was its most profitable year in 2019. He declined to provide revenue numbers.
The 50-year-old company, which has clients in 30 states and 11 countries, describes its revenue as placing it among the top 10 percent of architecture firms nationwide. Its office footprint extends from Baltimore to Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina, with eight more offices in Virginia and North Carolina.
With about 110 employees in Richmond, Moseley focuses on K-12 schools and higher education, civic and judicial buildings, senior living facilities, and multifamily housing.
Roberson said the addition of Cummings & McCrady will expand the firm’s education and civic work, while also adding its concentration in historic preservation.
The two firms are currently collaborating on a pair of middle school projects in Charleston’s suburbs, and were recently awarded an indefinite delivery contract for the Charleston County School District. With their combination, Roberson said he expects the Charleston office to grow in staff count and workload as the pandemic begins to wane.
“The market is only limited by the imagination, in our book, because of the prominence of the Charleston market in the Mid-Atlantic and how it also affords us the reach northward along the coast to Myrtle Beach and southward to Georgia,” he said. “Our growth strategy has been to examine attractive locations which are adjacent to our existing footprint, and Charleston is a piece of that puzzle.”
Moseley Architects’ headquarters at 3200 Norfolk St. in Scott’s Addition. (Courtesy of Moseley Architects)
Having tested out the waters there over the past year, a Richmond-based architecture firm is taking a bigger bite out of the South Carolina coast with an acquisition of a frequent collaborator.
Moseley Architects, headquartered in Scott’s Addition, is purchasing Cummings & McCrady, a Charleston-based architecture and engineering firm that it’s worked with on projects since before it set up an outpost there in February.
The non-cash deal is set to close Dec. 31. Terms were not disclosed.
Moseley, which had been operating in Charleston out of a coworking space, will take Cummings & McCrady’s office at 44-D Markfield Drive as its 11th office location. All of Cummings & McCrady’s six employees will come over in the deal, including Principal Ben Whitener, who will become a shareholder with Moseley.
CEO Stewart Roberson said Moseley had been eyeing the Charleston market for three or four years. It began talks about potentially joining forces with Cummings & McCrady about 18 months ago.
The firm, which was formed through a merger in 1957 and has roots dating back to 1911, first collaborated with Moseley in 2006 on an elementary school renovation in the Charleston area, Roberson said.
Stewart Roberson
“Over those 18 months, those discussions became more and more promising, particularly as we won new work together,” Roberson said.
While those conditions were seemingly complicated with the arrival of the pandemic, Roberson said the circumstances in fact presented an opportune time to go forward with a deal.
Cummings & McCrady is Moseley’s third acquisition in eight years, having acquired Fairfax-based firm BeeryRio in 2012 and Baltimore-based Marks Thomas in 2017.
“During times like these, it’s not unusual for firms like ours to seize the opportunities to strengthen our position in the marketplace by aligning ourselves with other firms who are similarly motivated,” Roberson said. “The economic circumstances make opportunities like these more attractive from a business perspective, and especially from a future growth perspective.”
He added, “The pandemic, we would expect, will wane and eventually end. But our business interest will extend well beyond the pandemic in the decades ahead.”
While Moseley has needed to adjust to the pandemic, reducing its workforce 7 percent since its arrival in March, Roberson said the firm, which with this deal will total 271 employees, remains 10 percent off what he said was its most profitable year in 2019. He declined to provide revenue numbers.
The 50-year-old company, which has clients in 30 states and 11 countries, describes its revenue as placing it among the top 10 percent of architecture firms nationwide. Its office footprint extends from Baltimore to Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina, with eight more offices in Virginia and North Carolina.
With about 110 employees in Richmond, Moseley focuses on K-12 schools and higher education, civic and judicial buildings, senior living facilities, and multifamily housing.
Roberson said the addition of Cummings & McCrady will expand the firm’s education and civic work, while also adding its concentration in historic preservation.
The two firms are currently collaborating on a pair of middle school projects in Charleston’s suburbs, and were recently awarded an indefinite delivery contract for the Charleston County School District. With their combination, Roberson said he expects the Charleston office to grow in staff count and workload as the pandemic begins to wane.
“The market is only limited by the imagination, in our book, because of the prominence of the Charleston market in the Mid-Atlantic and how it also affords us the reach northward along the coast to Myrtle Beach and southward to Georgia,” he said. “Our growth strategy has been to examine attractive locations which are adjacent to our existing footprint, and Charleston is a piece of that puzzle.”