Ghafari Acquires Leading Grand Rapids Commercial Design Firm, Concept Design Group
Grand Rapids, MI – Ghafari Associates, Engineering News-Record Midwest’s “2017 Design Firm of the Year”, is proud to announce that it has acquired Concept Design Group, an award-winning architectural and interior design firm based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The acquisition will expand Ghafari’s Western Michigan presence, broaden Concept Design’s reach to international markets, and provide enhanced services and resources to the clients of both firms.
Founded nearly 30 years ago, Concept Design is a professional architectural and interior design firm specializing in commercial, corporate office, law, multi-family, hospitality, retail, restaurant, and mixed-use facility projects. Ghafari has identified the commercial market and corporate spaces as key to its future growth and has expanded organically to support recent successes in this arena.
“As part of our strategic plan, we are expanding our core corporate and commercial expertise, as well as our geographic reach. Joining forces with Concept Design enables us to enhance our design capabilities and corporate / commercial portfolio, while also affording their team the opportunity to grow professionally,” said Kouhaila Hammer, President + CEO of Ghafari Associates.
Stephen Fry, Founder and President of Concept Design, added, “The additional resources this union brings will broaden the range of services we provide, including full facility engineering and process engineering. Obviously, it deepens our bench strength and positions us on a faster path toward serving clients beyond Western Michigan. This opens up a lot of new opportunities for our clients and our team.”
Fry will continue to lead the Grand Rapids office, serving as president of that office. He and Thomas Tooley, Concept Design’s Senior Vice President, will also join Ghafari’s Management Team. The unit will be known as “Concept Design, a Ghafari Company” during the transition period. The firm and employees will remain in their current office.
The addition of the new Grand Rapids location will bring Ghafari’s total number of offices to 15.
