Holt Architects focused on growing new Syracuse office

SYRACUSE  —  Holt Architects had designs on opening a Syracuse branch for some time before it moved into a downtown office in the middle of January.

“We’ve been planning it for probably four or five months,” says Paul Levesque, principal at Ithaca–based Holt. “The idea behind it was Syracuse is strategic for our markets.”

The architectural firm moved into 1,500 square feet of space at 132 E. Jefferson St. in downtown Syracuse. That space, at the corner of East Jefferson Street and South Warren Street, is the company’s first satellite outside of its 6,500-square-foot headquarters at 217 N. Aurora St. in Ithaca.

Holt intends to use the new office to primarily serve the health care and higher-education markets. They are Holt’s focus areas, according to Levesque. He adds that Holt has worked for major Syracuse–area players in those fields in the past, including the State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University and Syracuse University.

But Holt wants to use the office to project a presence beyond Syracuse proper. Levesque indicates the company plans to bolster its business throughout the area.

“A lot of our clients are north of Syracuse, east of Syracuse, and west of Syracuse,” he says. “It’s sort of a hub.”

Three Holt employees currently staff the downtown Syracuse office, including Levesque. However, the office is large enough to hold eight total employees. The firm wants to hire new workers to fill out the space over the next three years.

Holt employees who are based in Ithaca will also be able to use the office for projects or meetings on an as-needed basis. That could be particularly useful for employees who live in the Syracuse area, Levesque adds. The company has seven employees who live around Syracuse. It employs 34 people in total, with 31 based in Ithaca.

In addition to establishing a physical location in an existing market, the Syracuse location gives Holt space near some of its consultants.

“A lot of our consulting engineers are actually out of the Syracuse area, too,” Levesque says. “So it will be easier to work with them.”

Teleconferencing technologies make it easy to communicate between the Syracuse and Ithaca offices, says Nathan Brown, a Holt project manager based in Syracuse.

“I still have team members in Ithaca that I work with on projects,” he says. “When I relocated from Ithaca, I didn’t see much difference.”

Brown was the lead designer of Holt’s Syracuse office. He says he attempted to create a light, open area with large windows and contemporary furniture.

LeChase Construction Services, LLC, based in Rochester, served as the general contractor for renovations. Work cost less than $100,000, although Levesque and Brown declining to be more specific. Holt paid for the construction using its own cash reserves.

Holt is leasing its Syracuse space from Paramount Realty Group, LLC, which is a joint venture between developers Richard DeVito and Robert Doucette. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had leased the space previously, according to Brown.

“We took over the old HUD space, and we tried to reuse as much as we could,” he says. “We try to really be a sustainable firm, so whatever we could reuse, we did.”

Currently, Holt’s goal is to build the amount of business going through its Syracuse office. But if things go well, it may look to open additional satellite offices in the future, Brown continues.

The architectural firm generated about $6 million in revenue in 2012. Holt is projecting growth of 5 percent in 2013. It hired two new employees at its Ithaca headquarters in the last month.

In addition to Levesque, Holt has three principals. They are Graham Gillespie, Steven Hugo, and Quay Thompson.

Its major projects include work at Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca and SUNY Cortland. Another major client is the University of Rochester, according to Levesque.

Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com