Huckabee
The Fort Worth school district has contracted with Huckabee on projects in the past, including helping develop new looks and directions for Western Hills.
Huckabee & Associates, Inc., a leading technology-enabled architecture, engineering, and consulting services and solutions firm specializing in education facilities, on Wednesday announced that it has received a strategic investment from Godspeed Capital Management LP.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The investment aligns Godspeed’s government focused investment strategy, as the education facilities market in the U.S. is largely funded by state government issued bonds. Godspeed and Huckabee intend to expand their reach to government entities through an organic and acquisition growth strategy going forward, company officials said in a news release.
Godspeed Capital is a lower middle-market defense and government services, solutions, and technology focused private equity firm.
Huckabee CEO Chris Huckabee will continue lead the firm.
“We are proud to partner with Godspeed Capital, whose deep industry experience and knowledge across the broader education and government related architecture and engineering markets will provide a powerful complement to help the Huckabee platform expand both within and beyond the education design and engineering services market in Texas,” Huckabee said in a statement. “We look forward to working closely with Godspeed to further enhance our core areas of expertise, invest in our accredited team, and pursue acquisitions that broaden our capabilities and expand the platform’s market reach.”
Huckabee, founded in 1967 and headquartered in Fort Worth, is the largest education architecture and design services firm in Texas, whose growth makes the state one of the largest and fastest-growing education facilities markets in the country.
Throughout its history, Huckabee has focused exclusively on the planning and design of innovative learning environments in Texas, primarily in the K-12 public education market, but is also now expanding into early learning centers, higher education, and museums.
The company is consistently ranked as one of the top education architectural design firms in the nation. Huckabee employs more than 240 employees across six offices.
Huckabee has made significant internal investments to develop their own education design technology and software tools which have helped position it on the cutting edge of innovation and efficiency. The company built an education design laboratory, the LEx Collaborative, in partnership with Baylor University to showcase innovations in K-12 learning environments.
Huckabee is consistently recognized for its innovative design achievements and work environment by prominent organizations and publications, such as the American Institute of Architecture, Engineering News Record, Architectural Record, Building Design + Construction, the Zweig report, and others.
In addition to Chris Huckabee, the current Huckabee leadership and management team will remain intact and will retain a significant equity position, company officials said.
“Huckabee has built a strong reputation for education design innovation through its commitment to crafting engaging learning environments which foster confident, supported, and accomplished students — an ethos that strongly aligns with Godspeed’s focus,” said Douglas T. Lake Jr., founder and managing partner of Godspeed Capital. “We look forward to collaborating with Huckabee to support new innovations in education design while bringing both geographic diversity and scale to the platform as it continues to expand and deliver thoughtful facility solutions that meet the evolving needs of the education market.”