Stantec closes Syracuse office

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Mar 25, 2005 by Rombel, Adam

DeWITT - Stantec, Inc. - a publicly traded, Edmonton, Albertabased engineering and design firm with nearly $450 and $500 million in annual revenue - is closing its Syracuse branch office. The move comes nearly one year after Stantec (TSX: STN) acquired the Syracuse operation through its purchase of Rochester-based engineering firm Sear-Brown Group, Inc.

The Syracuse branch office at 5794 Widewaters Parkway in DeWitt - which employed about 25 architects, engineers, technical-support, and administrative people - will be officially closed on March 31, says Ray Alarie, executive VP with Stantec in its Kitchener, Ontario office. He oversees the company's operations in the northeast and southeast U.S. and eastern Canada, which includes approximately 1,700 employees.

All of Stantec's DeWitt employees, except for one or two administrative staffers are gone already. "For all practical purposes, it's shut down now," Alarie says.

Stantec decided to close the Syracuse branch office, which Sear-Brown opened 11 years ago, because it didn't generate enough sales to financially justify keeping it open.

"When we look at our office locations, we try to reach a. critical mass in every market we're in," Alarie says.

The Syracuse branch generated about $2.5 million in annual revenue, he says. That's compared to the $22 million to $25 million in revenue the company's Rochester office produces. Staff at the Rochester office, which is Stantec's northeast U.S. operations center, will handle much of the work the company does in Central New York. Stantec's Albany office, and some employees working from their Central New York homes, will also service Syracuse clients, Alarie says.

Stantec currently is working on a few transportation projects in, Central New York, Alarie says. He couldn't narne them offhand.

Stantec informed its Syracuse-branch workers of the planned office closing in late November. Alarie says Stantec offered 20 employees jobs at its other locations, including Rochester, where it employs 200, and Albany where it employs 50.

About 10 of the employees took the firm up on the offer. They mostly went to the Rochester office, Alarie says. Others found jobs with other area engineering and design companies, including three employees who joined O'Brien & Gere. Thomas Dussing, Stantec's Syracuse-branch manager was among them, Alarie says. And about four workers are still working for Stantec from their Syracuse-area homes.

"Syracuse is blessed with having a number of good engineering and architectural firms," Alarie gays. "We're very pleased that everybody as far as we know has found gainful employment locally."

The Syracuse branch office wasn't the only former Sear-Brown location Stantec has closed since acquiring the firm on April 6, 2004. Offices in State College, Pa. and Lancaster, Pa. also have been shuttered, according to Alarie.

However, the number of former SearBrown employees on staff, about 400 at the time of the acquisition, hasn't gone down much due to intra-office transfers, Alarie says.

Stantec, which was founded in 1954, has a total of 4,400 employees. The company says it has been profitable in every one of its 51 years.

Since opening a Syracuse-area office in 1994, Seat-Brown provided engineering design and construction services for municipalities, agencies, school districts, and, businesses. The office's capital projects in the region included: Improvements to the East Syracuse-Minoa Schools and Waterloo Central Schools, bridge-rehabilitation design of the I-81/I-690 viaduct through the city of Syracuse, design of the Northeast Medical Center in Fayetteville, and site civil design for Tri-State Auto Auction, Inc.