Stantec Inc., a big publicly traded design and consulting company based in Edmonton, Alberta, says it’s looking to grow its Spokane operations through involvement with several sizable upcoming projects. 

Stantec recorded billings of about $2 million in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area last year, and senior principal Timothy Vig says, “So far our numbers have increased for 2015 and are continuing to look strong, with additional work underway.”

Companywide, Stantec reported second-quarter net income of $43.1 million, or 46 cents a diluted share, down slightly from $44.3 million, or 47 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. The company’s gross revenue increased 12.1 percent to $710.3 million in the second quarter, up from $633.8 million. The company said in that most recent earnings report that its building and infrastructure business operating units each had strong organic revenue growth in the second quarter.

Founded in 1954 by Don Stanley, Stantec now employs more than 15,000 people overall at more than 250 locations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. In the Northwest, in addition to its office here, it has offices in Bellevue and Lynnwood, Wash., and two offices in Portland. It also has four offices in Alaska.

The Spokane office joined the Stantec network last year, when Stantec acquired Anchorage, Alaska-based architectural and engineering firm USKH Inc., which had opened an office here in 2001. The Spokane office occupies 7,000 square feet of space on the third floor of the Flour Mill commercial building, at 621 W. Mallon, near the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. The office here currently has 25 employees, including three new hires within the last month.

“We’ve added a senior architect, a funding specialist, and a lead surveyor position. Our staff is very capable, with lots of talent,” says Riley Witt, senior planning technician for the Spokane office.

Witt says, “What’s neat about being a part of this company is the network of resources we’re able to tap into in order to benefit communities. If we don’t have an expert or a certain material here, we can find those within the company.”

Stantec’s services include professional consulting in planning, engineering, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, surveying, environmental sciences, project management, and project economics. The company also works with various industries to complete community building projects involving infrastructure, energy and resources

Witt says the Spokane office is comprised mostly of civil and mechanical engineers as well as architects and surveyors. 

“We’re a multidiscipline firm, with teams within teams depending on the size of the project,” he says. 

Witt says that while most of the company’s work is for governmental clients, it also has some private development clients. 

“We value all of our clients big or small,” says Witt. “Typically, clients also need help locating funding for a project, and we can assist with that too.”

Stantec currently is working on several projects locally, including engineering for a new mountain resort community at the 49 Degrees North ski area, a redesign of Wenatchee’s Pangborn Memorial Airport, design of renovations to Spokane’s Garland Business District, and the design of Riverfront Park’s new ice rink and skyride facility. 

Witt says the company’s planned design work at Riverfront Park is one example of bringing together expert resources. 

“It’s still in the early negotiations, but we’ll be consulting with our lead ice rink design expert from Minneapolis,” he says.

 Stantec has completed more than 200 ice projects in 40 states, and often creates its own innovative design plans.

 “We’re known for having created the ribbon design used in several ice rinks around the country,” he says. Stantec’s online blog describes the ribbon design as focusing on recreational skating by positioning the ice into a skating pathway that winds through park landscaping.

One recent rural project Stantec helped securing funding for was the design of a new wastewater treatment plant for the town of Lind, Wash. According to Stantec senior communications coordinator Steve Edwards, construction of the $3.2 million project wrapped up last year. Edwards says the project received a total of 86 percent grant funding through all phases, including $2.75 million in grants and $445,000 in low-interest loans.

Witt says this type of project often comes about when a community has failing infrastructure and no available funding sources to update it. 

“So much of our infrastructure is not only old but becoming strained as we experience growth,” he says. “We see this most in small towns like Lind, with no municipal funds available. We were able to find them grant funding, but without that funding they would have been in a tough spot.”

Meredith Noble, a Spokane-based funding specialist for Stantec, says securing funding is becoming an evermore complicated process with various programs, applications, and requirements that don’t always fit well together.

“These programs are very specific on what they will fund, so it can be a challenge to get all the pieces to match a project’s needs and timeframe,” says Noble.

She says Stantec takes a four-phase approach to finding funding resources, starting with a needs assessment.  

“Each project is different so we have to determine the best sources of funding to pursue,” she says. “Once we have assessed their needs, we develop a strategy, pursue applications, and then begin managing the funding we receive.”

Noble says Stantec’s grant writers have secured about $1 billion in funding for the company’s clients over the last 35 years. She says sometimes it’s difficult for clients to know what funding they have access to and where to go to find it, especially because each state has unique funding sources. 

“It’s really a special offering for our company to do this, and we’re constantly stacked up on projects that need funding,” Noble says. 

Another project here that Stantec’s funding specialists worked on recently was helping the city of Spokane to secure a $400,000 Environmental Protection Agency brownfield communitywide assessment grant, as part of “The Yard” project. The project includes assessment of environmental sites and redevelopment of the former railyard in Spokane’s Hillyard neighborhood.

“Since 2012, Stantec has assisted communities throughout the western U.S. to secure 28 EPA brownfield grants with a 100 percent success rate,” says Noble. “The average success rate is 20 percent.

While each project is different, Witt says that most of the company’s upcoming projects here are ongoing.

“Projects like 49 Degrees North are larger developments that will take multiple phases of design and construction,” he says. “Others, like the Garland business district, involve more public outreach, working with both business and community goals. It really depends on the scope of the project and the goal the client has in mind.”

Other projects, such as the redesign of the Wenatchee airport, involve returning clients that Stantec has worked with on multiple projects. 

“In this case the client is a regional airport looking to grow economically, attracting new airlines, while also needing to meet FAA standards of runway expansion,” says Witt. 

The total cost of the Wenatchee project is about $29 million, including property acquisition, consultants, administration, and construction. Stantec says 90 percent of the project is federally funded through the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program (AIP), with the remaining 10 percent being funded by the Airport Sponsors (Ports of Chelan and Douglas Counties).

Witt says that in addition to working with clients on projects that benefit communities and infrastructure, Stantec also strives to keep its employees active in the community by hosting both an engineering week for middle and high school students, as well as a companywide volunteer day.

“It’s called ‘Stantec in the Community,’” he says. “Last year we volunteered with Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners (SNAP) to complete some maintenance work on an apartment complex for the homeless.”

In the future, Witt says he would most like to see the company do more water-related projects here, as well as multifamily housing and redevelopment.

“Water is very important to the Pacific Northwest right now,” he says. “There is also a tremendous opportunity in Spokane for housing and redevelopment.”