Business developmentforCleveland AEC firms.
BD-AEC embeds a business development department for Cleveland architecture, engineering, and construction firms. Senior leadership, market intelligence, creative capacity, and consistent execution give your principals a team behind their next stage of growth.
Outsourced growth infrastructure
A department behind your growth
Leadership, intelligence, creative capacity, and follow-through, working together as part of your firm.
01
Strategy
Choose the work worth pursuing. Market intelligence and Creative Mapping connect your strengths with the right buyers, partners, and opportunities.
02
Creativity
Give buyers a reason to remember you. Positioning, story, and proposals turn technical expertise into a clear case for choosing your firm.
03
Execution
Keep the work moving. Outreach, relationships, pursuit coordination, and regular reviews turn decisions into a repeatable business development practice. Kinetic Rebalance adjusts the effort as evidence changes, including doing less.
Strategy + Creativity + Execution = Growth
The strategy + creativity principle comes from our partners at BLDG Brands. BD-AEC adds execution.
Scott leads the relationship as CEO and Strategic Partner. The department brings the capacity around him. Your principals stay involved in technical decisions and key relationships; we establish the rhythm and carry the work forward together.
Explore the embedded departmentThe Cleveland market
Who buys design and construction here
Cleveland is an eds-and-meds market with a heavy manufacturing and public-infrastructure load underneath it. About 661 design and construction firms compete here, including 371 engineering firms, and the biggest owners keep enormous capital programs running year after year.
Cleveland buys design and construction on the back of its health systems first. Cleveland Clinic is mid-build on its roughly $1.1 billion, one-million-square-foot Neurological Institute, its largest building ever, with a first patient expected in early 2027, and its Innovation District towers are wrapping. University Hospitals is finishing a $236 million Ahuja Medical Center expansion and adding cancer capacity at UH TriPoint, MetroHealth just delivered the $759 million Glick Center and is opening its $168 million Apex outpatient tower, and Case Western Reserve is advancing a roughly $300 million Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building. Layer in Sherwin-Williams' new $750 million downtown global headquarters and Morikis Global Technology Center in Brecksville, the $2.7 billion HKS-designed Browns dome breaking ground in Brook Park, and a corporate base that still includes Cleveland-Cliffs, Progressive, Parker Hannifin, Eaton, and Lincoln Electric, and you have a market with deep, durable capital demand.
It is also a deep, relationship-bound AEC town, not an open one. Homegrown firms are entrenched: Osborn Engineering has run out of Cleveland since 1892, and Middough, Neff and Associates, Euthenics, Bialosky, and Vocon all hold owner relationships that go back decades. National primes have planted flags to chase the health-system and mega-project work too. The same facilities directors, program managers, and public owners recur on job after job, so selection runs on reputation and a track record they already trust, not the low number from a firm they have never heard of.
Cleveland health systems, major project programs, and public owners form an established buyer network. BD-AEC takes this market on selectively, building relationships deliberately over time. BD-AEC brings strategy, creativity, and execution together in an embedded department, connecting market intelligence with relationships, positioning, and pursuit support. Your principals contribute the technical judgment; our team helps carry the work forward.
U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns (NAICS 5413, 2022)
Healthcare systems
Cleveland Clinic and its roughly $1.1B Neurological Institute, University Hospitals and its $236M Ahuja expansion plus the UH TriPoint cancer hub, and MetroHealth's Glick Center and $168M Apex tower.
Higher education & research
Case Western Reserve University and its roughly $300M Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building, plus Cleveland State, the University Circle institutions, and the Cleveland Clinic Innovation District.
Corporate & HQ
Sherwin-Williams' $750M downtown headquarters and Brecksville R&D center, plus Cleveland-Cliffs, Progressive, Parker Hannifin, Eaton, Lincoln Electric, and TransDigm across Northeast Ohio.
Public infrastructure
ODOT District 12, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's roughly $3B Project Clean Lake program, Cleveland Water, the City of Cleveland, and Cuyahoga County.
Aviation, transit & mega-projects
The $1.6B-plus Cleveland Hopkins CLEvolution terminal program, GCRTA and its Red Line airport relocation, and the $2.7B Browns dome and mixed-use build in Brook Park.
RFPs and bids
Where Cleveland architecture and engineering work gets advertised
These are the agencies and institutions that put architecture and engineering work out to bid in Cleveland, and the portals where they post it. Bookmark them. Winning the work is a different job from finding it, and finding it is the part you can do yourself.
City of Cleveland, Division of Purchases and Supplies (Department of Finance)
Publishes the city's RFQs and RFPs for design and engineering, currently including 2026 General Engineering Services, 2026 Capital Infrastructure Professional Services, City Hall Modernization CM-R, Camp Forbes Master Plan, and 2026 On Call Professional Services Owner's Rep.
City of Cleveland Department of Port Control
Owns Cleveland Hopkins International and Burke Lakefront airports and is procuring the CLEvolution terminal modernization program, which has already seated Jacobs as program and construction manager and the CLE Connection Group design-build team for a 6,000-space garage and relocated RTA station opening 2029.
Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works
Hires design consultants for county bridges, roads, sanitary sewer and county buildings (Lee Road Bridge Replacement, Highland Road Bridge, Fitch Road Sewer Extension, Metzenbaum Building elevator modernization) under its own written Policy on Consultant Selection.
Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District
Buys wastewater and stormwater design and study work under the Project Clean Lake consent decree program, posting engineering proposals such as the Westerly Headworks work and the Southerly Tunnel Dewatering project.
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
Procures A/E design and construction support for rail, station, facility and parking projects, including standing on-call architectural and engineering services and station work such as the Triskett Escalator Upgrade.
Ohio Department of Transportation District 12
Administers state and federal highway design, bridge, environmental, right of way and construction inspection consultant contracts across Cuyahoga, Geauga and Lake counties from Garfield Heights, including the $328 million I-90 Central Interchange project.
Cleveland Metropolitan School District
Runs district facility, renovation and professional services solicitations through an OpenGov e-bidding portal after retiring its paper process; surplus CMSD school sites are separately marketed for redevelopment by the City.
Where solicitations are posted
- City of Cleveland, Request for Qualifications/Proposal (Department of Finance)
- Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works, Open and Upcoming Bids
- Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, Bids and proposals (Active, Closed, Awarded)
- Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, Procurement Contract Opportunities
- ODOT Consultant Project Postings and Programmatics
How selection works here
Ohio's QBS statute (ORC 153.65 through 153.71) governs the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and CMSD: the authority must publicly announce the contract, rank firms on qualifications, then negotiate fee with the top-ranked firm and formally terminate in writing before moving to the next, but 153.65 expressly carves the ODOT director out of that definition, so District 12 work instead runs on ODOT's own programmatic calendar (postings Sept. 8, 2026 and Jan. 19, 2027, Letters of Interest due about three weeks later, selections about five weeks after that) and requires both technical prequalification by category and an annual financial cost submission in the PreQ system before a firm is even eligible to submit. Cuyahoga County Public Works is the outlier locally: it advertises the RFQ in The Plain Dealer, calls the first submittal a Pre-Proposal rather than an SF330, publishes a quarterly Upcoming Consultant Hires list (Q4 2026 shows one General Engineering Services (Sanitary) contract), scores it with a five-member committee that jointly signs one sheet, limits consultant marketing meetings to once a year, and imposes a full communications blackout from advertisement until contract signature with no debrief until then. On-call and general engineering agreements are the volume play in this metro (the City's 2026 General Engineering Services and 2026 On Call Professional Services, GCRTA's on-call A/E), and diversity certification is local and separate at every buyer rather than one shared roster: Cleveland OEO certifies Cleveland Small Business, MBE and FBE under Codified Ordinances Chapter 187, Cuyahoga County runs SBE through its Department of Equity and Inclusion (created in 2021 when the old Office of Procurement and Diversity was split) and additionally requires annual Inspector General vendor registration by Dec. 31, and NEORSD certifies through its own Business Opportunity Program.
The Cleveland bid watchlist
Finding the work is a job in itself. Once a quarter we send this page's market to your inbox: new federal awards in the Cleveland metro, buyer moves, and portal changes. No pitch, just the market.
Email scott@bd-aec.com with the subject "Cleveland bid watchlist" and we'll add you.
Federal market
Federal AEC spending in Cleveland
Federal agencies obligated $127M for architecture, engineering, and construction work in the Cleveland metro over the last twelve months. Enough to matter as one channel among several, and small enough that a handful of firms hold most of it.
Obligated, 12 months
$127M
Across the 6-county Cleveland, OH area.
Largest buyer
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
$56M of the total.
Firms winning it
- Dawn/Higley JV II, LLC · $43M
- Erie Affiliates Inc · $20M
- Pinnacle Construction Development Group, Inc · $17M
- R.J. Runge Company, Inc · $6M
Federal prime contract awards, USASpending.gov, twelve months to August 2026. Federal work is one slice of this market and excludes state, municipal, institutional, and private owners.
By discipline
BD-AEC in Cleveland, by discipline
We embed a coordinated BD department for Cleveland AEC firms. We represent one firm per discipline, project type, and market. Open your discipline’s Cleveland page on the main site for the local picture.
Civil Engineering
Cleveland business development for civil engineering firms.
Structural Engineering
Cleveland business development for structural engineering firms.
Architecture
Cleveland business development for architecture firms.
Land Surveying & Geospatial
Cleveland business development for land surveying & geospatial firms.
Landscape Architecture
Cleveland business development for landscape architecture firms.
Construction Management
Cleveland business development for construction management firms.
Transportation & Traffic Engineering
Cleveland business development for transportation & traffic engineering firms.
Testing & Special Inspection
Cleveland business development for testing & special inspection firms.
Why us, here
An embedded BD department for Cleveland
Cleveland is one of a select few major markets BD-AEC takes on beyond its core, and we’re honest about what that means. We’re not claiming a Cleveland office or that Scott knows every owner in town by name. What we bring is an embedded BD department that works this market on purpose: the health-system facilities directors, the mega-project program managers, and the public owners who decide here. In a field this entrenched, a firm needs someone building those relationships week after week, and your technical team needs capacity around it to balance that work with delivery.
By policy, BD-AEC represents one firm per discipline, project type, and market, an ethical line that protects every client's pipeline. For a Cleveland firm, that means an exclusive BD partner who will never walk your relationships across the street to a competitor chasing the same Cleveland Clinic, university, or public-infrastructure work.
Questions
Straight answers
Does BD-AEC work the Cleveland market?
Yes, as one of a select few major markets we take on beyond our core. We’re honest about it: we don’t keep a Cleveland office, and we won’t pretend Scott knows every local owner by name. Our embedded BD department focuses on the Cleveland health systems, mega-projects, and public owners, and work those relationships deliberately over time. For a relationship-driven market this entrenched, that focus is the way in.
What kind of AEC firms do you represent in Cleveland?
Principal-led architecture, engineering, construction, and specialty firms, typically $500K to $20M in annual revenue, that need a more consistent growth function. We bring leadership, intelligence, creative capacity, and execution around the principals. By policy, we represent one firm per discipline, project type, and market, so we don't represent competing interests.
How is an embedded BD department different from hiring a BD director?
A strong internal hire can be the right choice when you have the budget, support, and work to sustain the role. BD-AEC brings a coordinated function: senior leadership, market intelligence, positioning, proposals and SOQs, relationships, and execution. If you're looking for fractional business development, this is a department model with capacity around the leader. We still need onboarding, access to your expertise, and your principals' participation in key decisions.
Cleveland is full of entrenched homegrown firms and national primes. Can an outside firm still compete?
Yes, but not by being the low number from a name nobody knows. Firms like Osborn, Middough, and Bialosky have owned these owner relationships for decades, and the big health-system and mega-project pursuits run on trust, not price. We position your firm with the people who decide, so you are the known quantity when the work comes up. That is exactly the kind of long, relationship-heavy pursuit a billable principal has no time to run.
How do we start?
Tell us about your firm and your market using the form below. Scott will respond within one business day, and he will tell you honestly whether your discipline and market are open before anything else.
Your next move
Build your next chapter in Cleveland.
Tell us where you want your firm to go and what's getting in the way. We'll look at your market, your current capacity, and whether an embedded BD department is the right fit.
Scott Mann
CEO | Strategic Partner
Scott will respond within one business day. Your first conversation covers your goals, availability in your discipline and market, and a practical next step.
Let's talk about your firm
A few details help Scott prepare for a useful conversation.
This requests a conversation. Scott will follow up to arrange a time. How we use your information.