Founded 50 years ago in Minnesota, Westwood Professional Services has been actively expanding its presence in mountain states, particularly in Colorado and Wyoming, where a regional change towards renewable energy has helped the firm to take advantage of its experience in wind, solar, energy storage and energy delivery projects. Westwood entered the wind industry on the coast in 1997, and for a decade works on the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind 3-GW project in Wyoming, one of the largest wind projects in the country.
Westwood experience includes larger wind turbines, heavy civil engineering in mountainous areas and data center projects that take advantage of energy generation and infrastructure. The acquisition of the Englewood firm, Colo. Engineering and Surveying Consultants, CVL, in 2020, has promoted its land development portfolio, with projects that aim to address the population growth in the east of the Denver metro area.
Westwood opened its first Colorado office in 2010, and today 150 employees are working from the locations of the Englewood and Westminster firm, while supporting multidisciplinary services nationwide, including -there are civil, electrical, structural, land engineering, remote sensing, environmental resources, water resources and geotechnical engineering.
Firm revenue increased by 30% among its more than 30 locations by 2024, and its labor force grew about 20%. At the national level, the firm recorded revenue of $ 412 million, up to $ 320 million by 2023.
Recent projects of a glance
Windler community
Land design and infrastructure for the community planned by 840 hectares in Aurora, Colo.
Pass the overland wind
Environmental permits and engineering services for the 114,000 hectares of wind energy in Sedwick County, Colo.
Converse County wind
Civil, survey and useful discovery for the 393-MW wind energy project in Converse County Wyo.
Chokecherry and Sierra Mad Wind
Development and construction activities on the site of the planned project of 3.5 GW in Wyoming.
In the list of design companies of Top States and Southwest Top States States and Southwest, Westwood ranks 33 with $ 36.39 million in revenue throughout the region. Of this total, $ 20.76 million was reported in Colorado and Wyoming. Energy projects represented $ 22.67 million in regional income.
Mallory Lindgren, a Senior Market Development Vice President, discussed Westwood’s regional presence with Enr’s regional publisher Jennifer Seward. This Q&A has been edited and condensed.
“Take advantage of our local experience to ensure that we find a common ground between what the local community wants and what is finally needed for our client, usefulness and network.”
—Mallory Lindgren, Senior Vice President of the Market Development, Westwood
What projects promote the growth of Westwood in the region? The growth of data centers in the area has created unprecedented energy demands and to take advantage of the entire Westwood experience in renewable space: providing the power infrastructure required for those people, as well as the development of the data center in terms of commercial property and the necessary public infrastructure and being able to work on the improvements of the road or transport, the Wastewater treatment facilities and other things. We are also aimed at what we consider to be land development projects [master-planned communities, industrial campuses, commercial development] And working with these partners. And we seek to complement this opportunity also with our power business, which focuses on supporting public services across the country.
How did you address some growth -related challenge? We entered the wind industry in 1987. And we really are leaders in the way of building and witting the wind and how to climb with this market, as wind turbines have become larger and heavier and more complex. And this has really differentiated us to find out those challenges of how to navigate the larger components and the heavy civil engineering and the classification required, especially in this mountain area.
We acquired a local company, CVL, because they were known for their relationships and to understand local rights and permit requirements, and this has been key to helping our customers navigate some of the changing market conditions.
The Windler community planned by 840 hectares are currently under construction in Aurora, Colo.
Photo courtesy Westwood
As we serve customers from all over the country and as battery storage projects, for example, we move to urban areas to support load centers, we take advantage of our local experience to ensure a common ground between what the local community wants and what is finally needed for our client, usefulness and network.
Was there any specific internal strategy to help the company adapt? Like most companies, we have had the challenge of building and maintaining equipment as we climb, and we have found that Denver is a great market to attract key talent. We have also updated our total compensation package to attract and retain high interpreters throughout the area. And we have implemented new training programs, new recognition strategies and worked on the benefits of our employees and we have only tried to reflect what current professionals value.
