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 , planz to open an office in St. Petersburt in July as a way to diversify its client base beyonx theweakened U.S. market for designh and projectadministration services. It follows a numbef of Columbus architectural and engineerinbg firms that have made similar moves in the lastseverak years. Don Brogan, the M&A associated serving as liaison to theRussian office, said the declined in the U.S. real estatse development and construction markets prompted the firm to find an overseas The firm has four active projects in Moscoq and other Russian cities and expects to hire a Russiajn representative to continue its busineswdevelopment efforts.
“It’s been in our long-term goals to look overseas and expand,” Brogan said. “With the markets the way they are here, we saw an M&A President Mark Daniels said discussions with consultants his firm workz with at the engineering firm in Westerville promptef to the move into theRussian “They showed us the opportunitiesa over there,” Daniels said. “There are more opportunity in that part of the Russia has experienced an economic especially with the collapse of petroleum prices last fall and intoearlh 2009, he said, but rising oil prices have bolsterede the economy in Russia, whicj has emerged in the last decade as a crudwe exporter.
“With oil prices going up,” Danielss said, “that really helps their economy.” Another M&Az partner, John Eymann, said seeking busineses overseas helps diversifythe firm’s revenuee base. An office in the Baltidc Sea portof St. Petersburg instea d of Moscow also makes it easier to pursue projects innearby countries. “In threed to five years,” he “we’d like to have a sustainable, self-sufficientg office that’s doing work in Russia and in othefr marketsin Europe.” The move overseas comes aftedr a concerted four-year effort to increasse the firm’s reputation as a design-focused organization and creatin a new brand.
Eymann said the firm had buil a reputation in the production of reliable constructioh documents but lagged on thedesignn side. “We went out and brought in talented architects,” Eymann said. “We intentionallt wanted to raise our design level in ordedr toget large-scale projects.” The firm recently droppee the names of founders Denny Meacham and Bob Apel nine yearse after a management group boughty out the two architects’ ownership. “We had kept the names Meachanm and Apel even through the ownershi change because of the strengtj inthe marketplace,” Eymann “This new branding finalizes the transition by simpl shortening it to M&A Architects.
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