From Dubai to Springfield

Dubai was in the international spotlight on Jan. 4, when the United Arab Emirates held grand opening ceremonies for the newest holder of the world's tallest building title, the Burj Khalifa. It may have been the first time in a long while that the average Springfield resident has noticed UAE.

But for two local businessmen - environmental design consultant Jason Hainline and architect Geoffrey Butler - Dubai has been a point of interest for more than a year.

Big bids gone awry

In 2007, Hainline received an assignment to consult on a few manufacturing and office projects in Dubai. He worked for Environmental Market Solutions Inc. at the time, but it's since merged with a sister company, Architectural Energy Corp.

In 2008, Springfield-based design firm Butler, Rosenbury & Partners Inc. began working on a proposal for a school in Dubai, said CEO Geoffrey Butler.

"We did find a project (in Dubai) that we'd heard about and that we went and made a presentation on. It was a big project for a firm of our size. It was a $50 million to $60 million school campus," he said.

In 2009, Dubai's financial crisis grabbed global headlines, and by the end of the year, newspapers were reporting total debt of up to $100 million. Commercial construction has dramatically slowed in Dubai, one of seven emirates in UAE.

Butler's firm was not awarded the project, he said, which was probably a good thing. The project would have required the firm to set up an office in Dubai, an expense Butler estimates would have cost $750,000.

"I guess we got lucky there. There were some huge investment projects that they flat shut down in the middle of construction. All those workers had no work," Butler said. "There were reports of people driving their BMWs to the airport and leaving them in the airport parking lot."

The construction slowdown in Dubai also affected Architectural Energy's Springfield office, which historically had about 90 percent of its work in international business, mostly in China, said Hainline, a senior project manager for the firm.

"I don't know that (construction is) 100 percent at a standstill ... I would be making up numbers if I told you it was 90 percent or something like that, but I think it is not insignificant," Hainline said. "I think if the economy never took a downturn, we would still have international clients pursuing us. But I think the economic situation has hampered a lot of projects coming up."

The firm's Dubai projects, Hainline said, are technically still in the works, but they are moving along at a significantly slower pace.

That slow pace is also reflected in the school project BRP bid on. "The goal was to open in November 2009," Butler said. "I think they're saying it might be done by the end of 2010 now."

Other factors

The financial crisis didn't only affect overseas work. Hainline said the slowdown in projects forced the Springfield office to lay off its two project managers. Hainline is the only staffer in the Springfield office, which shares space with Dake Wells Architecture on West Walnut.

Additionally, the consolidation of EMSI and Architectural Energy - both owned by Farmington, Conn.-based Carrier Corp. - has taken the office's focus away from international projects, Hainline said. While much of EMSI's work was international, the larger, longer-established Architectural Energy's work has been concentrated in North America.

The Springfield office's current work includes consultations on Drury University's arena, the Greene County Park Board's botanical center, and a health and life science center for Crowder College in Neosho, Hainline said.

For BRP and Springfield's Architectural Energy branch, the international work started in China. EMSI still operates an office there under that name and remains under the ownership of Carrier Corp. Hainline said that office continues to work on projects and pursue new business.

Butler, Rosenbury & Partners has pulled back its international efforts as well.

In late 2008, Butler said, BRP closed the office it shared with affiliate Huafang in China, where it had generated nearly $400,000 worth of work in two years.

"It's a lot different market than it was two to three years ago," Butler said.

While the company will still pursue select overseas projects, for now, BRP's billings are 100 percent domestic, he said.

Butler said he learned that there is little recourse if a client decides not to pay for work completed outside of the U.S.

"We made money on some projects, but not necessarily all," he said. "Here, if someone decides not to pay you, you have lien rights, and a court system. ... China doesn't have that."