Bangor-based professional services firm Haley Ward Inc. sold its building information modeling division to ABM Mechanical Inc., a mechanical contractor with locations in Bangor, Hancock and Westbrook.
The division was created with Haley Ward’s acquisition of Final Draft CAD LLC, a building information modeling firm based in Portland.
As part of the transaction, ABM will also acquire the Final Draft CAD name and integrate the team into its operations.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Building information modeling is a 3D method of creating coordination drawings that allows more visibility and accuracy in design, including conflict identification. It can create a digital representation of a completed building, according to Haley Ward. The model also contains engineering data that can be used for lighting analysis, heat transfer calculations, warranty data, cost and operations.
‘Bittersweet’
“This is a bittersweet moment for Haley Ward,” said Denis St. Peter, Haley Ward’s president and CEO. “Our acquisition of Final Draft CAD in 2023 expanded our presence into Portland; strengthened our ability to grow our brand and recognition in southern Maine; and, most importantly, we expanded the technical services from Portland to include civil engineering, planning and GIS in Maine’s largest city.”
ABM is a similar culture fit for the employees in the division, he added.
Benefits alignment
Haley Ward is an employee-owned professional engineering, architecture, environmental, planning and surveying consulting firm with 283 employees in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Florida.
ABM, founded in 1995, is an employee-owned mechanical systems contractor offering pre-construction, estimating, design, construction and maintenance services for commercial plumbing, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, electrical systems, medical gas, geothermal and solid fuel systems. It has 215 employees, including the five who were part of the recently acquired building information modeling team.
Of the building information modeling team, ABM’s president, Todd St. Peter (no relation to Denis St. Peter), said its addition “strengthens our ability to support both internal project needs and external BIM opportunities, while also helping advance our prefabrication and construction delivery capabilities.”
ABM’s business provides the team with opportunities tied to internal project delivery as well as external client service, he said. The team is expected to support ABM’s growing prefabrication efforts and broader construction workflow, while continuing to provide BIM services to outside partners and clients.
Haley Ward said the transition is supported by alignment between the two organizations in culture, compensation and benefits, helping provide stability for employees through the change.
The sale is a change for Haley Ward, which has been on an acquisition spree in recent years.
In addition to Final Draft CAD LLC, the firm has acquired Brookfield, Conn.-based civil engineering, surveying and environmental consultant CCA LLC; Glastonbury, Conn.-based Lenard Engineering Inc.; Port St. Lucie and Hobe Sound, Fla.-based engineering firm MilCor Group Inc.; Portsmouth, N.H.-based Ambit Engineering Inc.; the geo-environmental division of S.W. Cole Engineering; and Leominster and Chelmsford, Mass.-based surveying and civil engineering company Whitman & Bingham Associates LLC.
In 2020, the Maine company, then called CES Inc., acquired Haley and Ward Inc. of Maynard, Mass. CES shortly afterward changed its name to Haley Ward.
