A Marriage Designed In Merger Heaven

DOWNTOWN

In these days of consolidations and "right-sizing," here's something a bit different: A merger with no layoffs and no grand economies of scale.

One might ask, "What's the point of such a merger?"

The four partners in Emick, Howard, Nelson, & Seibert, a new architecture and office-interior design firm, say they got together to offer a wider variety of skills to clients and to take advantage of cross-referrals between the specialties they each offer.

An example: Jack Emick and Mindy Howard, who design office interiors, plan to refer residential business to architect Mark Nelson, a new partner.

"We've been asked over and over and over by our corporate clients to do their homes," Emick said. "We always said no and referred them to other folks. We decided we were getting tired of sending those people away."

Paul Seibert said he broached the merger possibility about five months ago with Emick, a longtime friendly competitor whom he talked to every three to six months.

"One day I said to him, `It seems the industry's changing and I need to change,' " he said. He figured architecture and real estate, like the banking industry, would see tiny companies and large ones survive and the rest die off.

He also saw clients getting much smarter, demanding full service.

The partners figure they can offer better service by pooling their skills and contacts:

-- Emick and Howard, as Emick/Howard & Associates, have specialized in interior office design for the past decade. They've completed high-profile jobs such as AT&T's six floors in the AT&T Gateway Tower and have built a list of prominent clients including Safeco and Washington Natural Gas.

-- Nelson, formerly with Lewis Nelson Architects, has 20 years of experience designing houses and commercial buildings. He designed the Mercer Island Public Library and Lou Tice's 14,000-square-foot ranch lodge in the Methow Valley. He has been named a finalist in the annual MAME contest sponsored by the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish counties.

-- Seibert, a former Seafirst Bank assistant vice president, has experience managing buildings, an area the new firm will take on. He also has supervised the design of more than 600 bank branches during his career. He has run his own consulting firm, Paul Seibert & Associates, for the past six and a half years, specializing in bank design but also serving other clients including pharmaceutical companies and law firms.

Emick, Howard, Nelson and Seibert pooled their assets, selling off individually what the new company could not use. Emick, Howard and Seibert contributed most of the equipment, leasing it to the company. Profits will be split among the partners, who have known each other as long as 16 years, competing as well as collaborating on projects.

The partners moved into Seibert's office in a low-profile building near First Avenue and Pine Street downtown.

"Day One the phone started ringing with new work," Emick said. "I think a certain amount of excitement was generated right off the bat."

The slow economy and slower real estate market can even present opportunities, the group is finding.

For example, companies who consolidate, cut back or move out of Seattle need to sublease their office space to other companies. That creates work for designers. AT&T, one of Emick/Howard's largest clients, is subleasing at least half its space in the AT&T Gateway Tower and hired the new firm to design a floor for a new sublease tenant, Claircom Communications.

Banks, too, are looking for designers as they acquire new branches, redesign old ones and consolidate administrative offices.

Jim Norman, a Seattle real estate broker and consultant, called the merger an "excellent marriage." The practices complement each other and the partners have good reputations among building managers and developers, he said.

Connecting banking/finance work with general business "gives them quite a leg up on some of the other smaller firms, particularly," Norman said.

Seibert said the new firm's clients include Evergreen Pharmaceutical, Washington Natural Gas, Washington Energy Resources, Tacoma Public Utilities, Weyerhaeuser Credit Union and several banks, including Seafirst, Pacific First, Cascade Savings and Pacific Northwest.