Landau Associates
Specialty: Environmental and geotechnical engineering, environmental permitting and natural resource consulting
Management: Steve Johnston, chief executive officer; Jay Bower, chief financial officer
Founded: 1982
Headquarters: Edmonds
2009 revenues: $15.6 million (gross)
Projected 2010 revenues:
Estimated $14 million (gross)
Current projects: Creating a wetland for the city of Arlington to improve stormwater quality; providing technical support for Seattle Housing Authority on an EIS for the proposed Yesler Terrace redevelopment; environmental investigation and remediation for a number of Puget Sound Initiative clean-up sites for the Port of Everett; environmental services for the acquisition and planned redevelopment of the Qwest Field north lot for Nitze-Stagen & Co.
Image by Jason Long/Landau Associates Landau Associates provided construction documents and environmental documentation for a wetland facility as part of an effort by the city of Arlington to use natural methods for cleaning stormwater.
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In this poor economy, Edmonds-based Landau Associates is “leveraging our strengths” by going after business in sectors where it already has clients but may not have saturated the market, said CEO Steve Johnston. It also is trying to get more of the business of current clients. Additionally, it is working to put together people who might want to invest in a project and to find grants in connection with projects, Johnston said.
The CEO said he is proud that Landau’s employees are among the smart people coming up with innovative and forward-thinking solutions to issues faced by clients.
The environmental and geotechnical engineering firm is expanding in areas that are regulatory driven, including cleanup of contaminated sites — jobs that are funded years in advance and are long-term.
“That’s another source of work, and it just keeps rolling in,” said Johnston. Those cleanup jobs provide about half the firm’s revenue, he said.
“Of course we’re impacted like everybody else from a major decrease in private development and we’re starting to see a drop-off in public works projects — and everybody’s seeing that,” he said.
Stormwater, data centers
The firm is finding jobs in industrial stormwater management for industry and public ports — work driven by newer stormwater regulations, Johnston said.
It has picked up jobs in Central and Eastern Washington, where the economy is better than in some other parts of the state, Johnston said. Those jobs are for data center development and expansion and agriculture-related industrial facilities.
Landau is spending more money marketing itself than it did when times were good.
“We’re clearly not as busy as we used to be,” Johnston said. “No one is,” with the exception of a few niche companies, including those heavily into federal government work, he said. Landau is starting to expand into that arena. It is also going after work outsourced by city governments cutting back on staff.
Water is “huge”
During the recession, the firm laid off 5 percent of its staff and lost another 5 to 8 percent to attrition, Johnston said. Now it has nearly 90 employees.
He said he expects regulatory-driven wetland mitigation and restoration, and fisheries and habitat enhancement work, to grow and be funded through American Indian tribes and local governments in Washington state as the economy improves.
Water is another area where Johnston expects growth. That includes work involving water rights, storage and management.
Water is and is going to be “a huge issue in the coming decade,” he said, “and the resource agencies are going to be heavily involved in where the water’s going, how it’s going to be allocated and who has the right to it.”