Shive-Hattery announces acquisition of Helix Design Group in Tacoma, Washington

Shive-Hattery, an architecture and engineering firm headquartered in Cedar Rapids, has announced the acquisition of the Helix Design Group, an architecture, interior design and graphic design firm in Tacoma, Washington. The acquisition was officially closed Feb. 23. Specific terms were not announced. Jennifer Bennett, president of Shive-Hattery, said the acquisition of Helix Design Group establishes a significant new presence for Shive-Hattery in the Pacific Northwest.

“There's a few things that are exciting about this,” Ms. Bennett said. “Anytime we can add a group of staff, it brings new talent and new expertise into our network that we can use throughout the company.” Ms. Bennett described the Helix Design Group as a “community-based architecture firm” with broad expertise in the vertical public market, including state, city and county facilities. The company has also worked extensively with Native American tribes in the Northwest, she said. “That's something our Phoenix and Tucson offices are also connected into,” she said, “so we’re looking forward to building that market as well.” Shive-Hattery first ventured into the Pacific Northwest by providing architectural design services for the Seattle Storm Center for Basketball Performance, a 50,000-square foot practice and training facility for the WNBA’s Seattle Storm franchise that’s expected to be completed this spring – officially bringing Shive-Hattery’s footprint coast to coast.

Ms. Bennett said the culture and mission of the Helix Design Group closely aligns with that of Shive-Hattery. “When we're looking for new partners, we're looking for a few different things, including a great cultural fit,” she said. “They’re really connected to their communities, and they're looking for development of long-term relationships with clients, not just the next project, as well as a great internal culture. And when we find that, we get to connect that office into our Shive-Hattery network, which is very community-based and very relationship-based.” Ms. Bennett compared Shive-Hattery’s acquisition of the Helix Design Group to the July 2022 acquisition of KdG Architects of St. Louis, a group with broad experience in hospitality and gaming developments. “When they came on board, they were able to connect into our network,” she said, “and all of a sudden, Caesars and Cordish and these large gaming clients, who we were doing a little bit of work for previously – now we're doing these major gaming projects in Las Vegas, in Louisiana and all over the nation.” The expansion of Shive-Hattery into the Pacific Northwest represents an important development in the company’s geographic reach, Ms. Bennett said. “The history of Shive-Hattery has been very Iowa-based, very Midwestern,” she said. “We started in Cedar Rapids over 125 years ago and have grown for a long time as an Iowa company, which is wonderful, although when the Midwest hits tough times, it can be kind of hard on the company. It’s great to get diversity in geography to add to our diversity of services, and I'm looking forward to that.” The acquisition “strengthens and diversifies Shive-Hattery’s service capabilities and portfolio to better serve clients at the local, regional and national level,” according to a Shive-Hattery news release. “In addition, the firms share complementary design experience with clients in the commercial, government, health care and industrial markets.” Shive-Hattery’s growth strategy isn’t focused on “becoming the biggest company out there,” Ms. Bennett said. “It’s really about how we can grow in a way that keeps our culture, our sense of community within Shive-Hattery,” she said. “We're focusing on growing to preserve that, not becoming a large corporate machine, but growing in a way that we can better serve our clients while preserving that sense of community, being very involved in our communities as well as our internal community. A lot of times, acquisitions are about size and services – ‘what does this do for Shive-Hattery’ – but for us, it’s about keeping our flat, autonomous, entrepreneurial culture and bringing that into other areas.”

Founded in 1994, Helix Design Group has about 27 employees and will operate as Helix Design Group, a Division of Shive-Hattery, with managing partner Bruce McKean continuing as leader of the Tacoma office. “We are delighted to be joining Shive-Hattery during this exciting time in their growth journey,” Mr. McKean said. “Becoming part of a larger network means we’ll be able to provide our clients with enhanced architectural and engineering capabilities and solutions along with expanded career opportunities for our staff.” Shive-Hattery, founded in 1895, is a 550-person architecture and engineering firm headquartered in Cedar Rapids, with 16 design offices in Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Washington and Wisconsin. In Iowa, the company has offices in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Bettendorf and Des Moines.