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Rob Mersch: Joplin is a challenging market to grow organically.
Rob Mersch: Joplin is a challenging market to grow organically.

Olsson Associates agrees to buy Joplin company

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Lincoln, Neb.-based Olsson Associates Inc., which operates an office in the Queen City, completed negotiations and signed a definite agreement to acquire Tri-State Engineering Inc. in Joplin.

The transaction is expected to close July 18 for undisclosed terms.

Rob Mersch, office leader at Olsson Associates in Springfield, said the deal would help grow the company’s market share in southwest Missouri.

“This one just made a lot of sense for a lot of different reasons,” he said. “Good team, good workload, good clients and our ability to grow and build staff down there – it’s just not an area where you can grow organically real easy.”

The firms have worked together in the past, including Community Development Block Grant projects in Joplin after the 2011 EF5 tornado struck the city.

Tri-State Engineering, which also operates an office in Claremore, Okla., is a 20-employee engineering firm with services including roadways and bridges, water supply treatment, site design and solid waste disposal. Officials say the staff will remain intact, and the company will operate as a division of Olsson Associates until year’s end. The firm will take on the Olsson name in 2017.

“They have mechanical, electrical, structural services that we currently don’t offer, testing and geotechnical that we don’t offer,” said Tri-State Engineering CEO Clayton Cristy. “Services related to all those different fields of engineering, we would now be able to offer.”

Cristy said the company has a client reach of around 100 miles outside of Joplin. Projects include the roundabout entrance at Downstream Casino, water system improvements at Roaring River State Park and site design for the Missouri Alternative and Renewable Energy Technology Center at Crowder College.

“I would anticipate that we would hopefully get larger projects, but we still hope to be able to serve our existing small clients,” Cristy said.

Olsson Associates has operated a satellite office in Joplin with a handful of staff members since 2008. With the extended presence in Joplin, Mersch said the firm now has the opportunity to serve the Oklahoma area.

“When we were brainstorming about ways to grow the Joplin market, we looked at our different opportunities and who we liked working with in that area. We thought Tri-State would be a great partner in expanding our presence there,” Mersch said.

Olsson Associates’ services include survey and materials testing, construction management, public infrastructure, stormwater work, transportation and land development.

“We are pretty broad in our public and private work, and we’re pretty happy about that,” Mersch said.

Olsson Associates entered the Springfield market in 2006. Recent area projects include the diverging diamond interchange at U.S. Highway Route 65 and Battlefield Road, negotiating off-site property acquisitions for the Mercy hospital in Joplin and civil engineering for the Mercy clinic under construction in Ozark.

The Joplin deal comes one month after Olsson Associates finalized an acquisition of Lutjen Inc., a North Kansas City firm, which pushed the companywide workforce over the 1,000 mark.

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