Syosset, NY – The LiRo Group (LiRo), a national, multidisciplinary project and construction management, engineering, architecture, and technology firm, has just acquired three affiliated New England-area companies: DiGiorgio Associates Inc.; DAI, Inc. (collectively DAI); and Monitor Builders Inc. (MBI).
The acquired companies, which specialize in the design (DAI) and construction management (MBI) of healthcare-focused facilities, are headquartered in Boston and share a satellite office in Portland, Maine.
ENR Engineering News-Record magazine currently ranks LiRo as the 15th-largest construction management firm in the United States. LiRo’s 2017 revenues exceeded $400 million. Since their founding, DAI and MBI have cumulatively designed or constructed projects valued in excess $2 billion.
“DAI and MBI are a welcome addition to the LiRo family,” said LiRo owner Rocco Trotta, PE. “At LiRo, our employees are our most important asset, and the new DAI and MBI staff will enhance our capabilities and strengthen our resources nationwide,” he continued.
DAI and MBI have been serving medical clients throughout New England for more than three decades. The three firms have either designed or built projects in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
Luis M. Tormenta, PE, LiRo’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “LiRo’s acquisition of DAI and MBI marks our strong entry into the New England market and augments our healthcare and life sciences expertise nationwide. It is an important step in the on-going strategic expansion of our firm that aims at providing complete construction, engineering, architecture, and technology services to both public and commercial clients throughout the United States and beyond. DAI and MBI bring to LiRo valuable client relationships and expand our company’s multidisciplinary staff to over 900 professionals.”
The DAI and MBI deal follows LiRo’s recent acquisition of the assets of Bowne Management Systems, Inc. (BMS) and Sidney B. Bowne & Son, LLC (Bowne), both based in Mineola, New York. The BMS and Bowne asset acquisition enabled LiRo to expand the complement of integrated construction services it provides in the geographical information systems (GIS), location services, land surveying, and information technology areas.
Michael Burton, PE, LiRo’s Senior Vice President and National Operations Manager, said, “This is an exciting opportunity for LiRo, DAI, and MBI to grow together and to cultivate the design and construction management strengths of each in support of the other. Our similar cultures – in which senior management actively engages with clients – will make the integration of our teams seamless. At the same time, this integration will provide professionals within the acquired firms with additional resources to deliver services to wider market sectors throughout New England.”
DAI specializes in both new projects and renovations of hospitals, medical office buildings, outpatient facilities, community health centers, senior assisted living and nursing homes, and laboratories along the East Coast. As a corporate affiliate member of the Center for Health Design, DAI has incorporated Evidence-Based Design research into their design work in order to create true healing environments.
Following the acquisition, John W. Weaver, President, Managing Principal, and co-founder of DAI, as well as Treasurer of MBI, will continue in a senior management role with LiRo. The New England Society for Healthcare Strategy (NESHS) named him the 2017 Healthcare Strategist of the Year.
“LiRo, with its marketing and business operations strength, as well as the innovative mark it continues to make on the design and construction industries, is a great match for DAI and MBI. Our healthcare and institutional clients will benefit from access to LiRo’s national project management, engineering, and design expertise and capabilities,” said Weaver.
DAI’s and MBI’s portfolio features numerous prominent healthcare projects throughout the Northeast. These include the on-going expansion and renovation of the HealthAlliance Hospital’s 48,000-square foot Emergency Department in Leominster, Massachusetts, scheduled for completion in 2019, and the $40 million, 100,000-square foot Lakes Region General Hospital Patient Tower in Laconia, New Hampshire.
LiRo’s expertise in completing complex healthcare and life sciences projects is well represented by the new $375 million, state-of-the-art Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, which opened in December 2017 in Buffalo, New York. At 628,000 square feet, the Jacobs Building is the largest recently constructed medical education building in the United States. LiRo served as a joint-venture construction manager for this new structure, which was designed and built to meet LEED Gold sustainability certification.
LiRo is currently providing Construction Management services for the $370 million Stony Brook University Medical and Research Translation (MART) Building and Hospital Pavilion in Stony Brook, New York. The eight-story, 245,000 square foot MART contains cancer research and patient treatment areas, while the adjacent 230,000 square foot Pavilion will house the Children’s Hospital, inpatient beds, and imaging facilities.
In addition, in Valhalla, New York, LiRo recently completed a $120 million capital program for Westchester Medical Center. The firm modernized many of the open suburban campus’ existing facilities – including renovating intensive care units, an Emergency Room, and laboratories – and built a Ronald McDonald House. The firm has also managed more than $150 million worth of expansions and renovations at the NYU Winthrop Hospital on Long Island and in New York City, the $21 million renovation of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, and the new $95 million Adult Behavioral Center at the Bronx Psychiatric Center in the Bronx, New York.
According to Steve H. Kovacs, MBI President and co-founder, who will also continue in a senior management position with LiRo, “Monitor Builders was founded in 1988 and specializes in providing pre-construction, construction management, and design/build services for healthcare projects. Its work to date has ranged from limited-scope renovations to $40 million additions. The firm’s project portfolio includes hospitals and healthcare clinics, laboratories, senior housing, and youth facilities. MBI’s personnel are very well-versed in the intricate phasing and staging required to keep healthcare facilities operational and safe during construction.”
In addition to the above-mentioned projects, the DAI-MBI team’s selected work includes the $7.5 million, 20,000-square foot Harrington HealthCare at Webster Emergency Department in Webster, Massachusetts; the $12 million, 59,000-square foot Assisted Living Residences and a Memory Care Residence at D’Youville Life & Wellness Center in Lowell, Massachusetts; the $44 million, the new101,000-square foot Huggins Hospital in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire; and the $12.7 million, 58,000-square foot Brockton Neighborhood Health Center; Brockton, Massachusetts.
The LiRo Group, a national project and construction management, engineering, architecture, and technology firm, was founded in 1983. Headquartered in Syosset, New York, the company operates regional offices throughout New York State, in New York City, Hicksville, Holbrook, Buffalo, and Rochester. LiRo’s offices are also located in Jersey City, New Jersey; Scranton, Pennsylvania; and Stamford, Connecticut. The company employs over 900 construction managers, engineers, architects, planners, BIM and GIS specialists, and other construction and support professionals nationwide. LiRo’s 2017 revenues exceeded $400 million.
LiRo’s current and recent projects in New York City and in the greater New York area include the $10.2 billion East Side Access Long Island Rail Road expansion; the $30 million restoration of Pier A and the $12 million SeaGlass Carousel in Battery Park; the $60 million CUNY School of Architecture; $180 million worth of projects at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, including the National Synchrotron Light Source II; the $228.5 million High Line Park; the new $600 million Kosciuszko Bridge; the new $3.8 billion Tappan Zee Bridge; the $240 million Staten Island Siphon tunnel; the $2.4 billion Number 7 Subway Line Extension; the $220 million Governors Island, New York, Infrastructure Improvements; the $363 million Build It Back post-Hurricane Sandy housing recovery program; the $750 million housing recovery program for the New York State Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR); New York City’s $640 million post-Hurricane Sandy Rapid Repairs temporary shelter-in-place program; the State of New Jersey’s $650 million housing Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, Elevation, and Mitigation (RREM) program;
The firm’s projects throughout the U.S. also include construction management services for the Los Angeles Unified School District’s 800-school construction and modernization program; the new Vista Mesa Middle School in Los Angeles; Centinela Valley Union High School District facilities planning and construction program management; the $90 million California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Health Care Facility Improvement Program; the $165 million Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness’ Shelter at Home program; and the $49 million Southern Connecticut State University Academic and Laboratory Building in New Haven, Connecticut.
LiRo’s work in upstate New York includes the $47 million Niagara Falls Municipal Complex and the $50 million Niagara Falls State Park restoration in Niagara Falls, the $78 million Monroe Community College’s Downtown Campus in Rochester, the $49 million renovation of Caudell Hall at the SUNY College at Buffalo, and the $12 million Educational Opportunity Center in Rochester.
Outside of the continental United States, LiRo is currently performing damage assessment and developing scopes of work for the repairs and replacements of roadways and bridges damaged by Hurricanes Maria and Irma on the U.S. Virgin Islands of St. Croix and St. Thomas.
