Business developmentforCincinnati AEC firms.
BD-AEC embeds a business development department for Cincinnati 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 Cincinnati market
Who buys design and construction here
The Cincinnati metro spans three states, and that shapes how AEC work is won here. About 638 design and construction firms compete across Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, navigating three regulatory environments and three sets of public owners.
Cincinnati is one of the densest AEC markets on the I-75 corridor, and a tri-state one: Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana each bring their own agencies, prequalification rules, and buyers. Firms that win consistently here have real local relationships across all three, not just a presence on one side of the river.
Demand is anchored by a deep institutional base, healthcare systems, universities, and a logistics economy built on the I-71 and I-75 spine and the CVG air-cargo hub, plus a generational wave of public infrastructure work led by the $3.6 billion Brent Spence Bridge Corridor. These owners hire on reputation and track record, not the low number from a firm they do not know.
Competition for Cincinnati institutional, municipal, and private work is intense. Relationships take time, and the firm needs a clear plan for which ones to develop. 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)
Healthcare systems
UC Health, TriHealth, Mercy Health, Cincinnati Children’s, The Christ Hospital, and St. Elizabeth Healthcare across the river in Northern Kentucky.
Public infrastructure
The $3.6B Brent Spence Bridge Corridor, ODOT District 8, KYTC District 6, the Metropolitan Sewer District, SD1, and Greater Cincinnati Water Works.
Municipal & regional
The City of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, the OKI Regional Council of Governments, and the Kenton, Boone, and Campbell county governments in NKY.
Institutional
The University of Cincinnati, Xavier, Northern Kentucky University, Miami University, and the region’s K-12 capital programs.
Corporate & aviation
Procter & Gamble, Kroger, Fifth Third, GE Aerospace in Evendale, and the CVG and Amazon Air logistics economy.
RFPs and bids
Where Cincinnati architecture and engineering work gets advertised
These are the agencies and institutions that put architecture and engineering work out to bid in Cincinnati, 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.
City of Cincinnati Office of Procurement
Runs every RFQ/RFP selection for the Department of Transportation & Engineering (streets, bridges, traffic, retaining walls) and Greater Cincinnati Water Works; RFPs/RFQs/RFIs are submitted through Bonfire, sealed Invitations to Bid through Vendor Self Service.
Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati
Buys design engineering for its sewer capital improvement program, but has no procurement shop of its own; the City of Cincinnati's Office of Procurement contracts every MSD professional services award, and MSD runs a separate SBE registration on top.
Hamilton County Engineer, Planning & Design Department
Scopes and designs county road, bridge and right-of-way improvements, and posts its own consultant RFQs on its Planning and Design page separately from central County Purchasing; much of it is funded through OPWC District 2 (SCIP/LTIP).
Ohio Department of Transportation District 8 (Cincinnati Area)
Highway, bridge and interchange design across Butler, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Hamilton and Warren counties; consultants must carry ODOT PreQ engineering and financial prequalification before they can file a Letter of Interest.
University of Cincinnati
Campus Architect/Engineer and Criteria Architect/Engineer work advertised on the OFCC Qualifications-Based Selection portal (Gateway Welcome Center at $200M, Holmes Hospital renovation at $105M), plus an annual prequalified professional services list for smaller unadvertised projects.
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG)
Airfield, terminal and utility design solicited on OpenGov; its published Future Opportunities list for August and September 2026 names Architect-Engineer Services for Capital & Major Maintenance Projects, Runway 18L/36R Tunnel Rehabilitation and the Concourse A Watermain.
Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (Cincinnati Metro)
Transit facility, bus rapid transit corridor and maintenance facility design, solicited through its OpenGov e-procurement portal with an FTA Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program attached.
Where solicitations are posted
- City of Cincinnati Bonfire Procurement Portal (City, MSD and Greater Cincinnati Water Works RFPs/RFQs/RFIs)
- Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, Qualifications-Based Selection RFQs (University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati State, K-12 districts)
- ODOT Electronic Letter of Interest System (consultant solicitations, District 8 included)
- Hamilton County Purchasing and Inclusion Management System (B2Gnow)
- CVG Airport Procurement (OpenGov solicitations and published Future Opportunities list)
How selection works here
Ohio mandates Qualifications-Based Selection by statute, so price is not in your first submittal: ORC 153.65 to 153.71 requires a public authority to publicly announce each professional design contract over $25,000, rank no fewer than three firms on qualifications alone, then negotiate a fair and reasonable fee with the top-ranked firm and formally terminate those talks in writing before it may drop to number two. Cincinnati layers economic inclusion on top of that, and it is scored, not ceremonial: under Cincinnati Municipal Code Chapters 323 and 324 any RFP or RFQ estimated at $50,000 or more must go to the city's Department of Economic Inclusion for an M/WBE goal determination, a 15 percent SBE subcontracting goal applies at $100,000 and up when M/WBE goals do not, and certified SLBE or ELBE firms can be awarded 1 to 10 evaluation preference points on professional services contracts, while a strict no-contact rule bars you from speaking to anyone but the buyer of record from the day the solicitation drops until award, on pain of rejection. Two gates decide who is even eligible to compete here: ODOT work requires engineering and financial prequalification in the PreQ system before you can file a Letter of Interest to District 8, and the University of Cincinnati runs an annual prequalified professional services list by discipline (the FY2027 RFQ, UCN-27500A, closed 30 July 2026), so a firm that misses that summer window is locked out of UC's unadvertised work for a full fiscal year. Note also that this metro straddles a state line, so CVG in Erlanger, Kentucky and OKI's Kentucky corridor studies sit under a different procurement regime than everything on the Ohio side.
The Cincinnati 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 Cincinnati metro, buyer moves, and portal changes. No pitch, just the market.
Email scott@bd-aec.com with the subject "Cincinnati bid watchlist" and we'll add you.
Federal market
Federal AEC spending in Cincinnati
Federal agencies obligated $47M for architecture, engineering, and construction work in the Cincinnati 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
$47M
Across the 15-county Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN area.
Largest buyer
Department of Veterans Affairs
$24M of the total.
Firms winning it
- Calvary Contracting Inc · $13M
- Pinnacle Construction Development Group, Inc · $9M
- MGI, Inc · $6M
- Dawn Incorporated · $4M
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 Cincinnati, by discipline
We embed a coordinated BD department for Cincinnati AEC firms. We represent one firm per discipline, project type, and market. Open your discipline’s Cincinnati page on the main site for the local picture.
Civil Engineering
Cincinnati business development for civil engineering firms.
Structural Engineering
Cincinnati business development for structural engineering firms.
Architecture
Cincinnati business development for architecture firms.
Land Surveying & Geospatial
Cincinnati business development for land surveying & geospatial firms.
Landscape Architecture
Cincinnati business development for landscape architecture firms.
Construction Management
Cincinnati business development for construction management firms.
Transportation & Traffic Engineering
Cincinnati business development for transportation & traffic engineering firms.
Testing & Special Inspection
Cincinnati business development for testing & special inspection firms.
Why us, here
An embedded BD department for Cincinnati
Cincinnati is BD-AEC’s home base. Scott runs business development here for firms anchored across the tri-state, and knows the owners, primes, and agencies on both sides of the Ohio River by name. That local knowledge is the difference between a cold proposal and a warm introduction.
By policy, BD-AEC represents one firm per discipline, project type, and market, an ethical line that protects every client’s pipeline. For a Cincinnati 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 work the Cincinnati market?
Yes. Cincinnati is BD-AEC’s home base. Several of the firms Scott represents are anchored across the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky market, and he works the owners, primes, and public agencies here directly, not from a distance.
What kind of AEC firms do you represent in Cincinnati?
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.
We work across the river into Kentucky too. Do you cover that?
Yes. The Cincinnati market is tri-state by nature, and so is the way we work it. Scott knows the Northern Kentucky owners and agencies, including the county governments, SD1, and St. Elizabeth Healthcare, as well as the Ohio side.
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 Cincinnati.
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.