Parker: WalterFedy acquires Riddell Kurczaba Structure

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It’s an thrilling begin to the month for the workers of Riddell Kurczaba Structure, as earlier this week the corporate joined the WalterFedy workforce, acquired by the Kitchener, Ont., agency in a big milestone in its long-term objective to totally set up a presence in Western Canada.

WalterFedy is a frontrunner within the structure and engineering business, happy with its 70-year historical past with a multidisciplinary workforce of 300 professionals working in workplaces in Kitchener, Toronto and Hamilton, and now Calgary and Edmonton.

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Its plans to broaden to the West started in earnest final spring when it opened an workplace right here to take care of nationwide purchasers that had workplaces in Calgary, and to discover how greatest to construct a everlasting relationship right here.

Tricia Smith, a accomplice within the agency, armed along with her mechanical engineering diploma from College of Waterloo and an MBA earned on the Ivy Enterprise College, relocated right here to tackle the function of normal supervisor of Western Canada.

She says when the choice was made that Calgary can be one of the best metropolis for a base, her response was “choose me.” And he or she has by no means seemed again on the transfer along with her household as completely transformed Calgarians.

Her husband and two kids are avid outdoor individuals, and he or she proudly exhibits a photograph of all of them sporting Calgary Flames jerseys. As hockey followers, Smith says: “If we might get tickets to a Maple Leafs house recreation it was a protracted journey to Toronto, and an extended experience house. In Calgary we are able to take pleasure in an NHL recreation as a household and be house in quarter-hour.”

After plenty of analysis into the architectural group right here, three native firms have been placed on the radar as being related in character to the best way WalterFedy runs its enterprise.

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Whereas CEO Garth Cressman was having a dialog in his workplace with a nationwide contractor, he introduced up the topic of attempting to amass a longtime, revered firm. His response was to method Riddell Kurczaba. Cressman says the corporate was already on his prime three record; a agency with the same alignment with the kind of initiatives WalterFedy is thought for, and with sturdy shopper relationships throughout the West.

Discussions started with CEO Ron Kurczaba, and this week Cressman was happy to announce: “We’re extraordinarily excited to welcome Riddell Kurczaba to our workforce. A agency rooted in Calgary with over 35 years of expertise, with a proficient workforce that can improve our means to ship distinctive architectural options.”

Riddell Kurczaba has labored a lot of its time with long-term purchasers akin to Remington Improvement, accountable for almost all of its workplace buildings on the Quarry Park campus, together with the large head workplace buildings designed for Imperial Oil and Jacobs Engineering. It additionally has a busy workplace in Edmonton, which provides an enormous bonus for the brand new Calgary enterprise. Smith is relocating her 5 workers from its downtown area to Riddell Kurczaba’s workplace’s on 59^th Avenue S.E.

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They are going to be a part of Riddell Kurczaba’s staff, who see the advantages of the brand new alternative to be working with a powerful nationwide agency. They embrace members of the management workforce — Peter Schulz, Paul Ketchabaw and Niha Prasad-Kroliczek — who’ve been appointed principals of the brand new entity. Ron Kurczaba has been named CEO Emeritus and can proceed to make sure a easy transition between the 2 corporations and their purchasers.

WalterFedy will quickly be on top of things on Riddell Kurczaba’s many present initiatives, together with Remington’s Barlow Crossing and Frontier Distribution Centre, Enmax Station No. 1 on 9^th Avenue S.W., two downtown conversion initiatives and the 63-unit Silvera Livingston group.

Cressman says combining the strengths of the 2 firms will improve WalterFedy’s capabilities to ship its high-quality work its purchasers have come to anticipate from his people-first firm.

Notes:

The British Excessive Commissioner to Canada, Susannah Goshko, will attend British Day on Saturday on the Spruce Meadows Masters, a celebration that has been held for greater than 20 years. She shall be entertaining a distinguished crowd whereas paying her respects to the Southern household, however you may wager she’ll sneak off to Tony James’ Maintain Calm and Carry Out store within the Founders Plaza for a packet of Walker’s Crisps, a British Cadbury bar and perhaps even a Bacon Buttie.

David Parker seems commonly within the Herald. Learn his columns on-line at calgaryherald.com/enterprise. He will be reached at 403-830-4622.

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