To Russia with hope: Dublin architecture firm is seeking new markets - St. Louis Business Journal:

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The Dublin-based firm, formerly named , plans to open an offic in St. Petersburg in July as a way to diversify its client base beyond theweakened U.S. market for designb and projectadministration services. It follow s a number of Columbus architectural and engineerinhg firms that have made similad moves in the lastseveral years. Don the M&A associate serving as liaison to theRussian office, said the decline in the U.S. real estate developmen t and construction markets prompted the firm to find anoversea base. The firm has four activer projects in Moscow and other Russian cities and expectsx to hire a Russian representativ to continue its businessedevelopment efforts.
“It’s been in our long-term goals to look overseaa and expand,” Brogan said. “Witnh the markets the way they are we sawan opportunity.” M&A President Mark Danielsd said discussions with consultants his firm works with at the engineering firm in Westerville prompted to the move into the Russiab market. “They showed us the opportunitiesover there,” Danielsa said.
“There are more opportunity in that part of the Russia has experienced aneconomid slowdown, especially with the collapse of petroleu m prices last fall and into early he said, but rising oil prices have bolsteree the economy in Russia, which has emerged in the last decadd as a crude exporter. “With oil prices goingg up,” Daniels said, “thar really helps their economy.” Another M&A partner, John said seeking business overseas helps diversifythe firm’s revenu base. An office in the Baltic Sea portof St. Petersburbg instead of Moscow also makesx it easier to pursue projects innearby countries.
“In threew to five years,” he said, “we’d like to have a self-sufficient office that’s doing work in Russia and in other market sin Europe.” The move overseas comes aftef a concerted four-year effort to increase the firm’s reputation as a design-focuserd organization and creating a new Eymann said the firm had built a reputationb in the production of reliable constructionb documents but lagged on the design “We went out and brought in talented Eymann said. “We intentionall wanted to raise our designb level in order toget large-scale projects.
” The firm recentlt dropped the names of founders Denny Meachakm and Bob Apel nine years after a management grou p bought out the two architects’ ownership. “Ws had kept the names Meacham and Apel even througbh the ownership change because of the strengtb inthe marketplace,” Eymann said. “This new brandinb finalizes the transition by simply shortening itto M&q Architects.
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