April 28, 2017

Stantec buys Inventrix, 22-person Seattle firm

Smith

Overton

Stantec said it has acquired Inventrix Engineering, a 22-person Seattle mechanical engineering firm, so it can do more projects for Northwest clients who want more services under one roof.

Terms were not released.

Stantec has over 22,000 employees worldwide. It provides engineering, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, surveying, environmental sciences, project management and project economics.

In December, Stantec hired Orion Morrissey, who has 20 years of experience in the industry, to head its new mechanical practice in the Northwest. The goal is to complement Stantec's electrical engineering practice in the region.

Eric Overton, vice president and regional business leader for Stantec Buildings, said the Inventrix acquisition offers clients an integrated engineering approach to building system design.

Inventrix was founded in 2005 by Jason Smith, who will become a Stantec principal.

Smith said he had been with Spokane-based MW Consulting Engineers as a partner working in Seattle before starting Inventrix.

The firm has worked with clients in the Northwest and elsewhere on projects that include data centers, commercial, civic, health care and education.

Those projects include:

• Lakefront Blocks in Seattle, which will have four buildings with 638,000 square feet of office space, 150 apartments, 10,000 square feet of retail and 788 parking stalls

• Infomart Data Center in Hillsboro, Oregon, a new 7.8 megawatt wholesale data center

• Microsoft Buildings 16 & 17 in Redmond

• University of Washington Bagley Hall abatement and renovation project, which has 28,000 square feet of new instructional and research labs in the chemistry building

• Seattle Central College Wood Technology Center. It replaced seven obsolete buildings with a 57,300 square-foot academic and industrial learning center.

Smith said Inventrix was started as a single-discipline rather than a multi-discipline firm because “we consider ourselves to be craftspeople — that what we do is mechanical engineering — rather than business people.”

All of the Inventrix staff will move to Stantec. Smith said the acquisition gives them the chance to work with the electrical engineers at Stantec, who are also craftspeople.

While Smith's firm has worked on some high-profile projects, it has not received a lot of press.

“Our ability to serve projects outpaced our ability to market,” he said.

The firm also has done design-build projects in a partnership with mechanical contractors. So while Inventrix designs the mechanical systems, the contractors' names are mentioned in the press.

Smith said that as buildings become more complicated, it's better to have coordination between mechanical and electrical disciplines under one roof to improve efficiency and sustainability.