Spouses Heather Grutzius and John White founded 510 Architects in 2008. (Photo courtesy 510)
After a 17-year run as 510 Architects, Heather Grutzius and John White are taking the firm they founded in Richmond and joining up with a larger, Ohio-based peer.
The married couple have struck a deal for 510 to be acquired by Champlin | EOP, a 160-person design firm headquartered in Cincinnati with offices in Indiana, Kentucky and – as of last year – Norfolk.
510 will assume the Champlin name (which is set to change through an upcoming rebranding) but continue operating as it has out of its Chamberlayne Avenue office, where the Grutzius and White and their eight-person staff have been based since relocating four years ago from Scott’s Addition’s HandCraft building.
The acquisition was announced June 4 and involves a cash transaction, terms of which were not disclosed. Grutzius and White, who founded 510 in 2009, will become principals and shareholders with Champlin as a result of the deal.
Talks between the firms started over a year ago, when work for client Bon Secours brought Champlin to Hampton Roads, where it opened a single-person office in Norfolk last year while designing the health system’s Harbour View Medical Center in Suffolk.
Krutarth Jain
It’s since lined up a $200 million expansion of Bon Secours’ Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News, and the heavier workload prompted Champlin to look around for more help – an effort that, through a mutual industry friend, connected the firm with 510, Champlin principal Krutarth Jain said.
“From the get-go, we saw that we have a strong cultural alignment: they’re also high-design; they want to focus on design and client service; we are all in the relationship business,” Jain said. “That sold us on the idea: how about we just partner.”
For Grutzius and White, the combination will give 510 access to resources and market opportunities at a greater scale than they could handle before, while also allowing the couple to step back from the business side of the business and get back to the architecture and design they want to do.
“It was one of those situations that, after the first meeting we had with them, Heather and I looked at each other and were like, all the things that were either a struggle or we’re trying to work on is what they’re strong in,” White said. “It’s mindboggling how much expertise we’re going to get from them, so we’re excited about that.”
In the 17 years that they’ve been in business, Jain said 510 has developed expertise in hospitality, mixed-use and multifamily design that Champlin will benefit from with the firm in the fold. He said having more boots on the ground in Virginia will also allow Champlin to say yes to more work in the state and the Mid-Atlantic.
“At the end of the day, that is the reason we partnered with them, because they are strong project managers and architects,” Jain said. “Now Champlin can do projects we were not anticipating doing, because now we have people on the ground and we can commit to those.”
Both Hokies with master’s degrees from Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture + Design, Grutzius and White started 510 – named for their house number at the time – initially alongside their 510 Fabricators company that made furniture and other items. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the couple put the fabrication skills they’d since put aside to work restoring vintage Airstreams at their Northside home.
Over the years, the design firm has fluctuated between eight and 14 staffers at a time, Grutzius said. She said the firm brought in nearly $2 million in revenue last year.
510’s designs for Yellow Umbrella’s Ballast market in Scott’s Addition. (BizSense file)
Recent projects have included Yellow Umbrella’s Ballast market in Scott’s Addition, Thalhimer Realty Partners’ Sampson Coatings redevelopment in Machester, Harlan Construction’s Orleans mixed-use building in Fulton and a church-to-office conversion in the East End.
Champlin, which was founded in 1978 and formed from the client base of a firm that dated back to 1895, focuses primarily on healthcare and is also active in education, office, places of worship, hospitality, and civic and cultural design. In addition to architecture, its services include interior design, planning and historic preservation.
Jain said the company brought in nearly $72 million in gross revenue last year. He said the 510 team would add to the company’s growth while also growing its own ranks in Richmond.
“We are talking about a (17)-year-old legacy that John and Heather and their committed staff members built. That is very important to us,” he said. “Our business plan is that, John and Heather are doing excellent work, keep doing what you’re doing, and everything we do, that’ll be that add on top. If they’re planning on pursuing other market areas, that’s a net growth for our Richmond office.”
510 shares the residence-turned-office building at 3210 Chamberlayne Ave. with marketing firm Red Orange Studios. (BizSense file photo)
For Grutzius and White, the office’s growth will include having more of a hand in their designs and less on back-office work.
“I’m excited to dig deeper again into architecture,” Grutzius said. “I can step back from a lot of the administrative roles, so that’s exciting to me.”
Added White, who said most of his time was being spent on business development and entitlement and zoning work, “It’ll be nice to see how I can, from a business development (standpoint), cast a bigger net – and both of us to get back to what we enjoy doing and want to do, just with a lot more resources.”
510 is the latest Richmond architecture firm to join forces with others. Earlier this year, longtime firm Hummel Associates was acquired by local peer PSH+.
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