ITAC News

The Richmond Chapter of Habitat for Humanity will be dedicating the ITAC Sponsored home to the Free Family on September 16th 2005, only two months to the day after breaking ground. This home represents the 9th Habitat home that ITAC has sponsored over the past 10 years. ITAC is extremely proud of it's relationship with Habitat for Humanity and it's continuing mission to eliminate substandard housing for hard-working, low-income families in the Richmond and Tri-Cities areas. Photos and Details of the house dedication are available at http://www.richmondhabitat.org/pdfs/ITAC.pdf

In a letter to ITAC on6/24/05, The Zweig Letter has ranked ITAC Engineers and Constructors #20 on The Zweig Letter Hot Firm 2005 List of the 100 fastest-growing architectural, engineering, planning and environmental consulting firms in the country. ITAC achieved this recognition by demonstrating a 97% growth rate from $15,725,548 in 2001 to $31,056,752 in 2004. Eligible firms had to be in business as of January 1, 2001 and had to have 2001 gross revenue of at least $1 Million. ITAC will be recognized for this accomplishment on in October 2005 at the Zweig Letter Hot Firm Conference and Celebration.

In a first-ever joint build between two different chapters (Richmond and Tri-Cities Habitat), Habitat for Humanity broke ground today in Dinwiddie County, VA as they begin work on the "Faith" house sponsored almost completely by funds raised by ITAC and it's employees, client and vendors. 16 ITAC employees and their families have also stepped up to volunteer their time to help construct the home built with highly-efficient Eco-Blocks and poured concrete walls. Habitat For Humanity is a nonprofit ecumenical organization dedicated to eliminating poverty housing from the world. It provides decent housing to partner families through no profit, no interest loans. Costs are kept down through use of volunteer labor and donated materials. The mortgage payments go into a revolving Fund for Humanity which builds more homes. In addition to mortgage payments, partner families invest "sweat equity" in building for Habitat. This house represents the eighth Habitat home ITAC has sponsored and the second home that was fully funded by ITAC and its supporting members. ITAC is proud of this achievement and thanks our clients, vendors, and employees who have supported our endeavors over the years.

For the second consecutive year and fourth year in it's history, ITAC received notice that they will be honored at the 14th Annual Rising 25 celebration on Thursday evening, January 29th, 2004 as one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the area. The Chamber of Commerce, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and KPMG will present ITAC's president, Sidney Harrison, with the award recognizing ITAC's contributions to the strength of our local economy.

To qualify, each organization had to be privately held, be headquartered in the Richmond community, operate for profit, and have 1998 sales of more than $200,000 with an increase in 2002 sales over 2001. The qualification of each organization was reviewed by the public accounting firm of KPMG LLP and then ranked by percentage growth over the 5-year period. The complete list of honorees was released in today's Metro Business Section of the Richmond Times Dispatch.

The same great resources, leadership, and services their customers have come to know will become broader and even better. This consolidation will make ITAC stronger and more efficient bringing its clients greater value with less energy expended.

ITAC and EMSI have become prominent leaders in the engineering and construction industries by listening and responding to the needs of their clients. The continued effort to meet the growing need of their clients has brought them the success they experience today. ITAC maintains a belief that ITAC’s vision is its client’s vision:

“…to conduct business with a professional, responsive, and financially sound company that can deliver the quality and cost effective solutions your business needs, safely and quickly.”

Beginning November 2003, ITAC and EMSI will gradually forge their strengths, capabilities, and resources into one company. In January of 2004, EMSI will become part of ITAC Engineers & Constructors. This will expand ITAC’s capabilities to add the full complement of self-performing mechanical piping and electrical construction services that EMSI has been providing to the engineering, design/build, and general contracting services that it performs today. This will expand its resource base to 250+ professional and field personnel and revenues to $30MM. ITAC will continue to meet project needs with single discipline and multi-disciplined engineering, general contracting, and traditional mechanical and electrical contracting services, and for those special project requirements – complete turnkey design/build services. Clients can expect to see the same people they have come to know and trust, dedicated to serving its customers and helping provide solutions for the challenges they face in their facilities every day.

ITAC Engineers & Constructors will place intense focus on delivering value to its customers, through the enhancement of its project approach by utilizing cost effective, creative, and innovative methods combined with a hard working, professional, and productive work force. The addition of the self-perform construction resources will allow ITAC to improve its designs, construction methods, and further integrate its design/build and general contracting project services.

ITAC and EMSI are excited about this union of talent and experience as they look forward to many more years of service to their clients.

ITAC is proud to announce that we are in the process of organizing our 9th Annual ITAC-HFH Golf tournament to be played at River’s Bend Golf Club on October 2, 2003. Through this event, we have proudly supported the construction of at least 7 houses in the Richmond area over the past 7 years, including sole sponsorship of 2 complete houses. ITAC and HFH are soliciting local and national businesses to join us in our efforts to support the Habitat for Humanity by becoming a sponsor for this year’s golf tournament. There are several ways that you can participate as a sponsor, so please review the enclosed information and let us know how you would like to participate. Your participation will be recognized in our tournament brochure as well as during the awards ceremony immediately following the tournament. We are anticipating this year’s turnout to be one of the largest ever with over 48 corporate sponsors from the area and over 120 players. We sincerely hope that you will participate with us in this effort to help others in our community by becoming a sponsor and joining us in this year’s golf tournament.! For more information regarding how you can participate in this year's event contact Jim Thomas at

On behalf of all of us here at ITAC Engineers & Constructors, I would like to take a minute to say thank all of our clients and vendors who attended our Open House last month. To say that we were fortunate not to be rained out on a day that looked so DISMAL is a huge understatement. It seemed like everywhere else in the Richmond area was getting dumped on while we were spared even the slightest amount of rain until all was said and done! If you stayed long enough... the sun actually came out!! That was amazing!!

Thanks again for helping to make this event such a success!! It means a lot to see so many of our key clients and supporting vendors show up to help us celebrate our 15th anniversary! We look forward to working with you in the future and hope that you will continue to support us in the years to come! Please let me know if there is anyway that we can help you in the future!

Most companies are fortunate enough to make Richmond's Rising 25 list but once in their company's history, but word last week from Cheryl Criswell of KPMG indicated that ITAC has once again earned this honored status. This year marks the third time ITAC has finished in the Rising 25 since 1992 when ITAC finished in First Place.

The Rising 25 list salutes the Richmond, Virginia, area's entrepreneurial spirit and highlights the fastest-growing, privately held businesses. The Rising 25 program-- co-sponsored by KPMG LLP, the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce and "Metro Business," the Monday business magazine section of the Richmond Times-Dispatch--accepts nominations for the Rising 25 each year during late September and through October. A black-tie celebration is held in late January to honor those businesses that rank at the top

Seventy companies were nominated this year. To make the list, companies must be privately held and for profit. Although financial information submitted in the nominations is kept confidential, each company must be able to show minimum revenue of $200,000 in the base year, the first of a five-year period considered for this year's recognition. Larger companies must show sales of more than $7.5 million. Also, current revenue must exceed the previous year's level.

Seventeen of the companies on this years list are involved in service or in related businesses, while only three are in construction and five are in the retail or wholesale business. The 25 companies employ nearly 1,500 people, including more than 1,100 full-time employees.