Business developmentforLouisville AEC firms.
BD-AEC embeds a business development department for Louisville architecture, engineering, and construction firms. Senior leadership, market intelligence, creative capacity, and consistent execution give your principals a team behind their next stage of growth.
Outsourced growth infrastructure
A department behind your growth
Leadership, intelligence, creative capacity, and follow-through, working together as part of your firm.
01
Strategy
Choose the work worth pursuing. Market intelligence and Creative Mapping connect your strengths with the right buyers, partners, and opportunities.
02
Creativity
Give buyers a reason to remember you. Positioning, story, and proposals turn technical expertise into a clear case for choosing your firm.
03
Execution
Keep the work moving. Outreach, relationships, pursuit coordination, and regular reviews turn decisions into a repeatable business development practice. Kinetic Rebalance adjusts the effort as evidence changes, including doing less.
Strategy + Creativity + Execution = Growth
The strategy + creativity principle comes from our partners at BLDG Brands. BD-AEC adds execution.
Scott leads the relationship as CEO and Strategic Partner. The department brings the capacity around him. Your principals stay involved in technical decisions and key relationships; we establish the rhythm and carry the work forward together.
Explore the embedded departmentThe Louisville market
Who buys design and construction here
The Louisville metro buys design and construction across an unusually broad base, and that shapes how AEC work is won here. About 390 design and construction firms compete across logistics, manufacturing, bourbon, and health-system pipelines that span the Kentucky and Indiana sides of the Ohio River.
Louisville is one of the most diversified AEC markets on the corridor. Logistics drives capital through UPS Worldport, the world's largest air-cargo hub, manufacturing flows from Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant and GE Appliances' Appliance Park, and a full-blown bourbon building boom runs from Brown-Forman's Old Forester and Whiskey Row distilleries. No single owner runs the table here, which means a firm has to be known across several very different buyer worlds at once.
Health systems are the steadiest owners in the metro. UofL Health, Norton Healthcare, and Baptist Health keep tower, clinic, and campus work in motion year after year, and public capital runs just as deep, from the billion-dollar-plus SDF Next program at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport to MSD, Louisville Water Company, and KYTC District 5. These owners hire on reputation and track record, not the low number from a firm they don't know.
Louisville is a competitive market with established firms including Luckett & Farley, K. Norman Berry Associates, and CMTA. Scott’s existing knowledge of Louisville owners, primes, and agencies informs where we focus the pursuit effort. BD-AEC brings strategy, creativity, and execution together in an embedded department, connecting market intelligence with relationships, positioning, and pursuit support. Your principals contribute the technical judgment; our team helps carry the work forward.
U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns (NAICS 5413, 2022)
Health systems
UofL Health, Norton Healthcare, and Baptist Health, whose tower, clinic, and outpatient campus work keeps Louisville's steadiest design and construction pipeline in motion.
Logistics & manufacturing
UPS Worldport at the airport, Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant, and GE Appliances' Appliance Park, the capital-heavy industrial owners that anchor the metro's economy.
Bourbon & corporate
Brown-Forman's Old Forester expansion and the wider bourbon building boom, plus Humana and the downtown corporate base.
Public infrastructure
The billion-dollar-plus SDF Next program at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, MSD, Louisville Water Company, and KYTC District 5.
Municipal & civic
Louisville Metro's downtown revival, including the Poe Companies conversion of the former Humana tower into a 1,000-room convention hotel, plus the city and Jefferson County capital programs reshaping the urban core.
RFPs and bids
Where Louisville architecture and engineering work gets advertised
These are the agencies and institutions that put architecture and engineering work out to bid in Louisville, and the portals where they post it. Bookmark them. Winning the work is a different job from finding it, and finding it is the part you can do yourself.
Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government
Buys design and engineering through the Office of Management and Budget's Executive Director of Procurement; live solicitations run through Public Works (River Road Widening, resurfacing), Parks & Recreation, Facilities/Fleet Management (Belvedere Renovation), Louisville Free Public Library (Highlands-Shelby Park CMAR) and the Waterfront Development Corporation (Waterfront Park Phase IV-B owner's rep), plus QBS design/engineering on-call task-order contracts capped at $150,000 per job.
Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District
Procures collection-system and treatment engineering by RFQ/RFP plus standing prequalified engineering lists; recent solicitations include the Upper Middle Fork Pump Station and Conveyance Progressive Design-Build, Collection System Professional/Technical Services, Wastewater Treatment Project Engineering Support, and MS4 stormwater quality program support.
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Highway District 5
The state highway district office at 8310 Westport Road in Louisville, covering Jefferson, Bullitt, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer, Henry, Trimble and Franklin counties; roadway, bridge, traffic and right-of-way consultant work is advertised and awarded centrally through the Cabinet's Division of Professional Services.
Louisville Water Company
Selects architecture and engineering firms from a standing Statement of Qualifications kept on file rather than project-by-project advertisements, and posts construction and supplier bids on its own electronic bid portal; also runs contractor prequalification, supplier diversity and a Small Business Equity Program.
Louisville Regional Airport Authority
Owns and operates Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport and Bowman Field; its Planning and Engineering Department requests Statements of Qualifications, proposals and bids for planning and design studies, construction, demolition, testing and environmental services under an FAA-required DBE, ACDBE and SBE program.
Transit Authority of River City
Buys transit facility, maintenance and planning work through its own electronic procurement portal, with a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program (goal stated as 10.04 percent for 2023 to 2025) that requires DBE certification through the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's Unified Certification Program.
Jefferson County Public Schools
Kentucky's largest school district; its Financial Services Purchasing office publishes district Bidding Opportunities, bid tabulations, and determination and findings notices covering facility, technology and construction-related procurements.
Where solicitations are posted
- Louisville Procurement Portal (Louisville Metro Government, Bonfire)
- Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Division of Professional Services (consultant prequalification and project listings)
- Louisville MSD Planroom (construction bids, RFPs and RFQs)
- Louisville Water Company Architecture & Engineering (Statement of Qualifications intake)
- FlyLouisvilleBids (Louisville Regional Airport Authority)
How selection works here
Kentucky QBS is opt-in at the local level: KRS 45A.735 lets each local public agency adopt KRS 45A.740, 45A.745 and 45A.750 and set its own dollar trigger, and Louisville Metro's Procurement Policy & Manual (Revision 8, July 2026) cites KRS 45A.730 to 750 as part of its purchasing authority and requires Qualifications-Based Selection for design and engineering on-call contracts, with individual task orders capped at $150,000. Two provisions quietly decide who gets called: KRS 45A.740(1)(a) has the agency notify firms that already have a current qualifications statement on file, 45A.735(2) keeps those statements on file only one year, and 45A.740(3) lets an agency skip advertising entirely and negotiate directly with a firm it has an existing working relationship with from prior work, so a lapsed SOQ and no incumbent history is how local firms go unseen. On participation, Louisville Metro sets annual spend goals under LMCO Chapter 37 of 15 percent certified minority owned, 5 percent certified female owned, 5 percent certified second chance supporting and 0.5 percent certified disabled owned businesses, enforced as documented good faith effort rather than disqualification, while MSD reserves construction between $50,000 and $299,999.99 for SLBE firms with a local presence in Jefferson, Oldham or Bullitt counties; separately, KYTC requires service-category prequalification through its Consultant Portal before a firm may respond to a District 5 advertisement, and because the metro spans the Ohio River, Indiana-side work needs a wholly separate INDOT prequalification filed through ITAP/PSCS.
The Louisville bid watchlist
Finding the work is a job in itself. Once a quarter we send this page's market to your inbox: new federal awards in the Louisville metro, buyer moves, and portal changes. No pitch, just the market.
Email scott@bd-aec.com with the subject "Louisville bid watchlist" and we'll add you.
Federal market
Federal AEC spending in Louisville
Federal agencies obligated $46M for architecture, engineering, and construction work in the Louisville metro over the last twelve months. Enough to matter as one channel among several, and small enough that a handful of firms hold most of it.
Obligated, 12 months
$46M
Across the 12-county Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN area.
Largest buyer
Department of Defense
$35M of the total.
Firms winning it
- Walsh - Turner JV II · $26M
- MLU Services, LLC · $4M
- Schnabel-HDR Joint Venture · $3M
- Valiant Construction LLC · $2M
Federal prime contract awards, USASpending.gov, twelve months to August 2026. Federal work is one slice of this market and excludes state, municipal, institutional, and private owners.
By discipline
BD-AEC in Louisville, by discipline
We embed a coordinated BD department for Louisville AEC firms. We represent one firm per discipline, project type, and market. Open your discipline’s Louisville page on the main site for the local picture.
Civil Engineering
Louisville business development for civil engineering firms.
Structural Engineering
Louisville business development for structural engineering firms.
Architecture
Louisville business development for architecture firms.
Land Surveying & Geospatial
Louisville business development for land surveying & geospatial firms.
Landscape Architecture
Louisville business development for landscape architecture firms.
Construction Management
Louisville business development for construction management firms.
Transportation & Traffic Engineering
Louisville business development for transportation & traffic engineering firms.
Testing & Special Inspection
Louisville business development for testing & special inspection firms.
Why us, here
An embedded BD department for Louisville
Louisville rewards firms that are known across very different buyer worlds, logistics, manufacturing, bourbon, health systems, and public agencies, all at once. Scott knows the Louisville owners, primes, and agencies by name, and that local knowledge is the difference between a cold proposal into a crowded field and a warm introduction to the program manager who's already heard of you. BD-AEC runs that business development for you so your senior people stay billable.
By policy, BD-AEC represents one firm per discipline, project type, and market, an ethical line that protects every client's pipeline. For a Louisville firm, that means an exclusive BD partner who will never walk your relationships across the street to a competitor.
Questions
Straight answers
Does BD-AEC actually know the Louisville market?
Yes. BD-AEC runs business development in Louisville, and Scott works the owners, primes, and public agencies here directly. He knows the health systems, the logistics and bourbon owners, and the public agencies like MSD, Louisville Water Company, and KYTC District 5, not from a distance but by name.
What kind of AEC firms do you represent in Louisville?
Principal-led architecture, engineering, construction, and specialty firms, typically $500K to $20M in annual revenue, that need a more consistent growth function. We bring leadership, intelligence, creative capacity, and execution around the principals. By policy, we represent one firm per discipline, project type, and market, so we don't represent competing interests.
How is an embedded BD department different from hiring a BD director?
A strong internal hire can be the right choice when you have the budget, support, and work to sustain the role. BD-AEC brings a coordinated function: senior leadership, market intelligence, positioning, proposals and SOQs, relationships, and execution. If you're looking for fractional business development, this is a department model with capacity around the leader. We still need onboarding, access to your expertise, and your principals' participation in key decisions.
Louisville already has entrenched local firms. Can an outsider win here?
That's the whole point of bringing in an embedded BD department. Firms like Luckett & Farley, K. Norman Berry, and CMTA win because they own the buyer relationships, and those relationships take years to build. Scott already knows the Louisville owners, primes, and agencies, so he shortens that runway instead of starting from zero.
How do we start?
Tell us about your firm and your market using the form below. Scott will respond within one business day to set up a discovery call and tell you honestly whether your discipline and market are open.
Your next move
Build your next chapter in Louisville.
Tell us where you want your firm to go and what's getting in the way. We'll look at your market, your current capacity, and whether an embedded BD department is the right fit.
Scott Mann
CEO | Strategic Partner
Scott will respond within one business day. Your first conversation covers your goals, availability in your discipline and market, and a practical next step.
Let's talk about your firm
A few details help Scott prepare for a useful conversation.
This requests a conversation. Scott will follow up to arrange a time. How we use your information.