What led Baton Rouge-based CSRS to be acquired? | Business

CSRS President Tim Barfield said he wasn’t planning to sell the Baton Rouge-based design, engineering and program management firm he has run since 2016, when a Dallas-area company came calling in 2022.

But after initially declining the offer from Westwood Professional Services then exploring the possibility and, even, working together on a project, Barfield and the 10 other owners of CSRS decided earlier this year that selling their 31-year-old firm to Westwood would be best for their clients, employees and future growth.

The deal was finalized last week. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“I did not do this lightly,” said Barfield. “But this has a lot of upside. Westwood is a growing, national company and they are very interested in growing their presence in Louisiana.”

The sale will not mean the end of CSRS in Baton Rouge, where Barfield said he will remain as local president for five years and head up a division focused on program management and disaster recovery — two areas where Westwood does not have a presence and CSRS has been strong.

But the deal will mean other changes for the $40 million firm and its roughly 175 employees. Some jobs will be lost or relocated to other offices. The CSRS name will change early next year. And other shifts in roles and responsibilities are still being worked out.

“The devil is in the details, and we’ll be going through all of that in the next six months,” Barfield said. “But they have been clear they are impressed by our firm and want to take the best of the best.”

The sale of CSRS will also mean the end of local ownership in a south Louisiana economy that has seen a consistent departure of locally owned companies in recent decades.

In June alone, two longtime New Orleans businesses, Canal Barge Co. and Gallo Mechanical, both announced sales to out-of-state companies. Baton Rouge’s publicly traded equipment rental firm H&E also sold last month in a $5.3 billion deal.

Barfield said such market exits should be seen in a positive light and are part of the natural evolution of the business cycle.

“This is why it’s important to have an entrepreneurial environment,” he said. “Businesses grow and merge, and there needs to be other things that come in and grow and do new things.”

Attractive target

CSRS was founded in 1994, when civil engineering firm Rodi & Songi merged with architects Chenevert Soderberg to form a firm that could offer more holistic and diverse services. Over the years, it expanded into program management, where it snagged major contracts overseeing work for the Recovery School District and Orleans Parish School System in New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina and the Green Light Program in Baton Rouge, among others.

Barfield, an attorney by training, joined the firm in 2016 after spending the early years of his career as president and chief operating officer of The Shaw Group under Jim Bernhard and, later, as a top executive in Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration.

Under Barfield’s leadership, CSRS continued to expand, averaging annual revenue and employee growth of nearly 10%. In recent years, he refocused some of CSRS’ efforts on its civil engineering business.

He also helped land more high-profile contracts for the firm, including project adviser for the redevelopment of the University Lakes in Baton Rouge, civil engineering work for the Amazon fulfillment center and helping the Port of Lake Charles with Hurricane Laura disaster recovery grants.

The breadth and depth of CSRS’ expertise made it attractive to Westwood, the company’s CEO Bryan Powell said in a statement.

“We are excited about the positive impacts this acquisition will bring to our people and clients,” Powell said in the statement.

Private equity owners

Westwood does many of the same things as CSRS but is much larger, with some 1,600 employees and offices in 13 states. The company was founded in Minnesota more than 50 years ago and specializes in a number of sectors, including renewable energy, power delivery, electric vehicle infrastructure, commercial, residential and public infrastructure projects.

Westwood has offices from California to Virginia, with a strong presence in markets such as the Midwest and Texas. But the company didn’t have a presence in Louisiana.

In 2024, Blackstone, the massive private equity firm bought a majority stake in Westwood. The platform and financial resources that Blackstone provides to Westwood and, now, CSRS will benefit local customers, Barfield said.

“The resources and opportunities are more than a sum of the parts,” he said.

About six weeks ago, Barfield brought in the top 30 people in CSRS leadership team to tell them there was a strong possibility of an acquisition. The senior managers took the news well. A week before the deal was announced, CSRS employees were notified and clients started getting contacted about the impending move.

The plan is for CSRS to continue operating as it has been through the end of the year.

“Our goal is for clients and employees to see things are largely the same as they have been,” Barfield said.