CEA Member, The Albert M. Higley Co. adds second out-of-town office in a year

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This article was written by real estate reporter, Stan Bullard, Crain's Cleveland Business.

The Albert M. Higley Co. of Cleveland has finished the second leg of its geographic expansion plan, opening an office in Pittsburgh.

The Cleveland-based general contractor and construction management firm has hired a market leader, Skylar Van Soest, as a regional vice president to drive its expansion in Pittsburgh and leased enough space to accommodate a staff of seven at Station Square, a former railroad depot turned into shops and offices.

Van Soest was previously a senior program manager at Allegheny Health System in Pittsburgh.

Gareth Vaughan, Higley president and CEO, said the company intentionally hired a person with executive-level construction experience but not an executive with one of the former steeltown-turned-tech center's legacy construction contractors.

"We feel that if you hire an executive from a local contractor, you take on that persona in the market," Vaughan said in an interview. "We want our own voice and want to have the perspective of a person with different experience in the market."

The expansion step was not taken lightly by Higley, a high-profile firm in Northeast Ohio that dates from 1925.

"We spent two years studying the market before taking this step," Vaughan said of the geographic expansion initiative led by Dan Sehlhorst, Higley's vice president of strategic and major pursuits, and Anna Dodson, vice president of business development.

Higley was attracted to Pittsburgh because of its proximity to Cleveland and its similar age and industrial history, Vaughan said, as well as a heavily unionized construction industry. Pittsburgh also has substantial health care and educational institutions, a key market for Higley here.

"One of our existing clients already has a job there for us," Vaughan said, as Higley is constructing for LaSalle Development Group Ltd. of Minneapolis an assisted-living and memory care center for senior citizens, called Tapestry, in Moon Township. Higley was the contractor on redevelopment last year of a former hotel at 28500 Euclid Ave. in Wickliffe as a Tapestry. The Pittsburgh project also repurposes a former hotel for the senior citizen housing market, a $19 million job.

The Pittsburgh office comes a year after Higley launched an office in Detroit as an expansion area.

"We're getting traction there," Vaughan said, as the firm has secured enough work to boost its Motown staff to seven.

Over the long haul, Vaughan said, growth in those markets may trigger more at Higley's home office, but that's not the case. The short drive time to Pittsburgh and Detroit also means that executives from Cleveland can reach them quickly, as the firm has a series of market leaders here for areas such as health care and education who are steeped in such areas. Dodson also provides business development services in all three markets.

Even so, the busy construction market has prompted the firm to add 10 people to its core Cleveland staff of 100. However, Higley's new headquarters at 3636 Euclid Ave., which it moved into last year, can still accommodate more staff, Vaughan said.

Higley had gross sales of more than $200 million, which includes the cost of building materials, in 2018 to achieve a record year. That figure was a "substantial increase" from its 2017 sales, Vaughan said.

While seeking work in additional markets allows the firm to grow revenue-wise, that's not its entire reason for adding new out-of-town offices.

"With new offices, we will be able to provide growth opportunities for our executives as people transition into new roles," Vaughan said. Otherwise, he said, the contractor would have good people waiting for someone to retire to win a promotion.