Business developmentforColumbus AEC firms.
BD-AEC runs business development for Columbus architecture, engineering, and construction firms as an embedded, fractional director. Your engineers bill $300 an hour, so they should not be running your pipeline. We run it, market by market, with the relationships that win work in a capital-flush boom market before the RFQ ever drops.
The Columbus market
Who buys design and construction here
Columbus is one of the best-funded AEC markets in the Midwest, and the work concentrates around a short list of owners running enormous capital programs. About 633 design and construction firms compete here, including 303 engineering firms, all chasing a pipeline moving at mega-project speed.
Columbus buys design and construction at a scale few Midwest metros can match, and the money flows from a handful of named owners. Intel's $28 billion Silicon Heartland campus in New Albany is a live construction zone pulling supplier, road, and utility work across Licking County, and the $3.5 billion Honda-LG battery plant near Jeffersonville is doing the same in Fayette County. Healthcare is just as concentrated: Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center opened its $2 billion, 26-story University Hospital tower in early 2026, OhioHealth is spending over a billion across Riverside and Grant, and Nationwide Children's is mid-build on a $730 million program including a 14-story tower and the Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion. The $2 billion John Glenn terminal runs under Hensel Phelps as construction manager. That's more capital in motion than almost anywhere on the corridor.
It's also a deep AEC town, not an open one. Columbus mixes homegrown firms with nationals that have planted flags to chase Intel and the health-system boom, and the same owners, program managers, and prime relationships recur on job after job. The corporate base runs just as deep, with five Fortune 500 headquarters here in Nationwide, American Electric Power, Cardinal Health, Huntington Bancshares, and Bath & Body Works, each a repeat buyer of facilities work. Being new to Columbus is not enough; you have to be known to the people who decide.
That's the opening for a fractional BD director. The pursuits worth winning run on relationships that take years to build, and a principal who is billable cannot build them on the side. A dedicated director who already knows the mega-project program managers, the health-system facilities directors, and the public owners at ODOT District 6 and the airport authority shortens that runway dramatically.
U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns (NAICS 5413, 2022)
Mega-projects & manufacturing
Intel's $28B Silicon Heartland campus in New Albany, the $3.5B Honda-LG battery plant near Jeffersonville, and the wave of supplier, road, and utility work feeding both.
Healthcare systems
Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center and its $2B University Hospital tower, OhioHealth's over $1B across Riverside and Grant, and Nationwide Children's $730M expansion program.
Higher education & institutional
The Ohio State University's Framework 2.0 campus program, plus the region's K-12 capital work and the research build-out riding the Intel corridor.
Corporate & HQ
Five Fortune 500 headquarters here: Nationwide, American Electric Power, Cardinal Health in Dublin, Huntington Bancshares, and Bath & Body Works, all repeat buyers of facilities work.
Public infrastructure
ODOT District 6, the Columbus Regional Airport Authority's $2B John Glenn terminal under Hensel Phelps, and the voter-approved LinkUS bus rapid transit program at COTA.
By discipline
BD-AEC in Columbus, by discipline
We run business development for Columbus AEC firms one discipline at a time, one client per discipline. Open your discipline’s Columbus page on the main site for the local picture.
Civil Engineering
Columbus business development for civil engineering firms.
Structural Engineering
Columbus business development for structural engineering firms.
Architecture
Columbus business development for architecture firms.
Land Surveying & Geospatial
Columbus business development for land surveying & geospatial firms.
Landscape Architecture
Columbus business development for landscape architecture firms.
Construction Management
Columbus business development for construction management firms.
Transportation & Traffic Engineering
Columbus business development for transportation & traffic engineering firms.
Testing & Special Inspection
Columbus business development for testing & special inspection firms.
Why us, here
Why a fractional BD director in Columbus
BD-AEC runs business development in Columbus, and Scott knows the owners, primes, and agencies who decide here by name. In a capital-flush market where the same mega-project program managers, health-system facilities directors, and public owners recur on job after job, that knowledge is the difference between a cold proposal and a warm introduction. We work these relationships directly, not from a distance.
By policy, BD-AEC represents one firm per discipline, project type, and market, an ethical line that protects every client's pipeline. For a Columbus firm, that means an exclusive BD partner who will never walk your relationships across the street to a competitor chasing the same Intel, Wexner, or airport work.
Questions
Straight answers
Does BD-AEC know the Columbus market?
Yes. BD-AEC runs business development in Columbus, and Scott knows the owners, primes, and public agencies here by name, from the mega-project program managers on the Intel and Honda-LG builds to the health-system facilities directors and the ODOT District 6 owners. He works them directly, not from a distance.
What kind of AEC firms do you represent in Columbus?
Principal-led architecture, engineering, and construction firms, roughly $1M to $20M in revenue, whose senior people are too valuable to spend their week on business development. By policy we take only one firm per discipline, project type, and market, so we never represent two competitors.
How is a fractional BD director different from hiring a salesperson?
A salesperson cold-calls. A fractional BD director is an embedded, senior partner who owns your pipeline: the strategy, the relationships, the teaming, and the pursuit. You get the expertise of a six-figure BD hire without the full-time salary line.
Columbus is booming and drawing national firms. Can a mid-sized local firm still compete?
Yes, but not by being the low number from a firm nobody knows. The mega-project owners, health systems, and program managers here hire on reputation and relationships, and much of the real work is teaming and subconsultant scopes under the primes. We position your firm with the people who decide, so you're the known quantity when the work comes up, not the stranger underbidding for a seat.
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.
Talk to Scott
Is your Columbus market open?
Tell us your firm and your discipline. Scott will respond within one business day and tell you honestly whether your Columbus market is open and what a fractional BD director would do first.
Request a discovery call
ColumbusAEC firms only. We'll never share your details.
More markets at bd-aec.com