JLL Buys Construction Consulting Firm

George Ladyman, managing director, JLL Projects

NEW YORK CITY—In a continued push to broaden its service offerings, JLL has acquired  local construction consulting services firm Merritt & Harris. M&H, founded in 1937, also has offices in Deerfield Beach, FL and Glendale, CA. The company has been involved in a host of high profile office and mixed-use projects in Manhattan, including World Trade Center Towers 3 and 4, the One Manhattan West and One Vanderbilt Place office towers and the Hudson Yards Platform Towers A and C. JLL has been very active on the acquisition front—both domestically and internationally—of late. Earlier this week, it picked up Procofin Oy, a Finland-based provider of project development and architectural services. Last month, JLL purchased CTH, a specialist engineering design business operating out of Paris and Lille, France as well as  Harry K. Moore , a Louisville, KY-based firm that is expected to boost JLL’s presence in the e-commerce sector. In April, JLL purchased French retail real estate consultant Véronique Nocquet. “M&H’s deep experience and reputation in cost estimating and property condition assessments make a powerful addition to JLL’s comprehensive PDS services,” says George Ladyman, managing director, JLL projects. “With this acquisition, we’re gaining a group of experts who share our cultural values of ethics, excellence and working together to help clients protect the value of their projects.” M&H president and CEO Manny Kratsios and more than 40 Merritt & Harris architects, engineers, cost analysts and construction experts will join JLL. No financial terms of the transaction were released.

Merritt & Harris president and CEO Manny Kratsios

Kratsios adds that the deal with JLL, which is headquartered in Chicago, provides what he terms as “an ideal situation for us to expand our business, provide a broader platform to our clients and give our people opportunities to continue their professional growth.” One of a number of M&H specialty groups is its sports division, which has provided consulting for performing arenas, as well as ballpark and sports stadium construction projects for bondholders and assurers, lenders and government authorities. Among the 50 sports facilities projects the firm has worked on have included Mercedes Benz Stadium and SunTrust Ballpark in Atlanta, U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis and Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. Its Latin America and Caribbean groups have consulted on hundreds of resort properties, according to JLL.