by Brianna Crandall — June 8, 2016 — Global professional services and real estate investment management firm JLL announced strategic acquisitions in the United States and the United Kingdom during the past week to strengthen offerings in its Project and Development Services and Integrated Facilities Management businesses, respectively.
USA: Merritt & Harris
To broaden its Project and Development Services (PDS) offerings, JLL has acquired Merritt & Harris (M&H), a leading provider of construction-related consulting services for real estate lenders and investors during new construction, renovations and workouts. Since its founding in 1937 as the first construction monitoring company in the United States to represent the interests of the lending and investment community, M&H has built a reputation for helping its clients make informed financial decisions and mitigate risk.
M&H’s comprehensive services include cost estimating, property condition assessments, plan and cost reviews, pre-construction analysis, project management, workout and distressed property assistance, and LEED / environmental services. M&H professionals apply hands-on expertise to all property types including commercial, residential, hospitality, retail, industrial, educational, medical, sports, gaming, entertainment, parking, airport and mixed-use.
M&H, which is headquartered in New York with additional offices in Glendale, California, and Deerfield Beach, Florida, has been involved with a number of high-profile office and mixed-use projects, 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.
The company also operates a number of specialty groups that serve niche industry areas. For one, M&H Sports has established itself as a pre-eminent consulting firm for arena, ballpark and stadium construction, working on more than 50 prestigious sports U.S. facilities, including Mercedes Benz Stadium and SunTrust Ballpark in Atlanta, U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, and Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. And through M&H Latin America and M&H Caribbean, the firm has performed services for hundreds of world-class resorts.
More than 40 M&H architects, engineers, cost analysts and construction experts will join JLL, including President and CEO Manny Kratsios.
U.K.: Integral
Building on its globally recognized Integrated Facilities Management business, JLL has also reached a definitive agreement to acquire Integral U.K. Ltd., a leading U.K. provider of mechanical and electrical property maintenance, in a move that will reportedly make JLL one of the largest mobile engineering services provider for property worldwide.
Originally formed in 1863, independently owned Integral U.K.’s 3,700-strong team provides both planned preventative and reactive maintenance to real estate owners, managers and occupiers throughout the U.K. With more than 1,600 clients across 60,000 locations, the company specializes in delivering a broad scope of facility maintenance services and complex mechanical and electrical engineering solutions including mobile engineering, fire and life safety, and critical environment management.
The acquisition will strengthen JLL’s ability to self-perform property maintenance for clients across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, adding to the more than 4 billion square feet of property currently serviced globally. It also will add to the company’s already strong base of transactional services and establishes an engineering center of excellence in Bristol, which will help grow and develop existing and new talent.
JLL
JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated) is a global professional services and investment management firm offering specialized real estate services to clients seeking increased value by owning, occupying and investing in real estate. A Fortune 500 company, JLL has more than 280 corporate offices, operates in more than 80 countries, and has a global workforce of more than 60,000. On behalf of its clients, the firm provides management and real estate outsourcing services for a property portfolio of 4.0 billion square feet.
