Canada-based Stantec to acquire two Virginia firms

Published December 16, 2013 by Robert Powell, III

A Canada-based company plans to acquire two Virginia-based environmental engineering and resource management companies.

The Williamsburg-based Williamsburg Environmental Group and Glen Allen-based  Cultural Resources Inc. have signed letters of intent to join Stantec, an Edmonton, Alberta-based engineering and design firm with more than 200 offices and 13,000 employees in North America.

Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to be final by the end January, were not disclosed.

The Virginia firms will expand Stantec’s growing mid-Atlantic region.

Founded in 1990, Williamsburg Environmental Group is a 100-person environmental consulting and engineering firm with offices in Richmond and Fredericksburg as well as Williamsburg.

The company’s services include ecology, environmental restoration, water resources, and regulatory support for public and private clients. Its projects include the environmental assessments and permitting for the APM Terminal in Portsmouth, which created a 570-acre marine terminal along the Elizabeth River.

Cultural Resources, which has a staff of 16, has common ownership with Williamsburg Environmental Group but operates as a separate firm, focusing on cultural resource management and historic preservation. Its services range from archaeological surveys and research for Civil War-era plantations to cultural resource assessments and analysis related to proposed development.

Stantec already has about 70 Virginia employees in Richmond, Fairfax and Leesburg. The firm employs more than 690 workers throughout the mid-Atlantic region, with offices in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.