Business developmentforFlint AEC firms.
BD-AEC embeds a business development department for Flint 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 Flint market
Who buys design and construction here
Flint is a small AEC market, roughly 70 design and construction firms across the metro, which makes it underserved rather than crowded. With so few firms and a handful of repeat public and industrial owners, the people who buy design and construction here already know the people who deliver it.
Flint is a relationship market, not a volume one. About 70 design and construction firms compete across the metro, and demand is unmistakably local. GM's billion-dollar reinvestment across Flint Assembly, the Flint Metal Center, and Flint Engine Operations keeps industrial and facilities work in play, and the Mundy Township megasite, the Advanced Manufacturing District of Genesee County, is the near-term economic-development driver everyone is watching. In a market this concentrated, the same plant engineers, facilities directors, and primes recur project after project.
The other half of demand is public, and it carries history. The water crisis turned the City of Flint and Genesee County into closely scrutinized infrastructure owners. The lead service line program is largely complete now, with the last pipes replaced in 2025, but water-plant modernization, property restoration, and broader public works are still on the table, and they run through owners who watch carefully who delivers. Winning that work is about trust and a track record on sensitive public projects, not the low bid.
Flint owners and residents have long memories. Trust with agencies and institutional buyers grows through consistent attention and a record of following through. 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)
GM & advanced manufacturing
General Motors' Flint reinvestment across Flint Assembly, the Flint Metal Center, and Flint Engine Operations, plus the Mundy Township megasite (the Advanced Manufacturing District of Genesee County) as a near-term economic-development driver.
Public infrastructure & water
The City of Flint and Genesee County water systems, post-crisis water-plant modernization and property restoration, the Genesee County Road Commission, and the Genesee County Land Bank.
Healthcare systems
Hurley Medical Center, McLaren Flint, and Ascension Genesys, the three hospital systems anchoring the region's medical capital work.
Higher education
Kettering University, the University of Michigan-Flint, Mott Community College, and Baker College of Flint, a dense campus base with recurring capital programs.
Transportation & regional
MDOT's Bay Region, Bishop International Airport, the Mass Transportation Authority, and Genesee County's public works and engineering programs.
RFPs and bids
Where Flint architecture and engineering work gets advertised
These are the agencies and institutions that put architecture and engineering work out to bid in Flint, 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 Flint, Finance Department, Division of Purchases & Supplies
Buys design and engineering for the ongoing lead water service line replacement program, water treatment and Water Service Center work, streets, parks and city facilities. Recent example: RFP 26000550, Grand Traverse Street Bridge Superstructure Replacement, published 06/10/26 with a mandatory pre-bid conference at City Hall.
Genesee County (Purchasing Department, 1101 Beach Street, Room 361, Flint)
Procures county facility, park and housing-rehab design plus construction contracting for the Genesee County Metropolitan Planning Commission. Purchasing Regulations Policy 04.002 Section 3-103 gives the Purchasing Administrator discretion to run professional services as a Request for Qualifications.
Genesee County Road Commission
Designs and builds the county road and bridge system from 211 West Oakley Street, Flint. Hires consulting engineers for design, construction engineering and inspection; engineering contact is the Engineering Department at (810) 767-4920.
Genesee County Drain Commissioner, Division of Water & Waste Services
Operates the regional water distribution and sanitary sewer collection systems. Important nuance: it sells planning, design, construction and project-closeout engineering to local municipalities in-house, so it is both a client and a direct competitor for small-community water and sewer design.
Michigan Department of Transportation, Bay Region
Owns the state trunklines through Genesee County (I-69, I-75, I-475, US-23, M-54). Flint-area projects are run out of the Davison Transportation Service Center, 9495 E. Potter Rd., Davison, MI 48423, one of the Bay Region's four TSCs.
Bishop International Airport Authority
Awards five-year on-call architectural, engineering and planning consultant agreements for its Airport Capital Improvement Program, selected under FAA Advisory Circular 150/5100-14E with AIP DBE participation. Governed by a nine-member board appointed by the Genesee County Board of Commissioners and the City of Flint.
Flint Community Schools
Issues district facilities, roofing and building RFPs through its business office (RFPSubmission@flintschools.org) and mirrors them on the MITN Purchasing Group, the main vertical-construction architecture and engineering buyer inside the city.
Where solicitations are posted
- BidNet Direct, MITN Purchasing Group, City of Flint solicitations
- City of Flint, Division of Purchases & Supplies, Bids & Requests for Proposal
- Genesee County Road Commission, Bids & Auctions
- MDOT Vendor and Consultant Services (RFPs issued via MILogin e-Proposal)
- MDOT Prequalified Service Vendors by Classification/Vendor (PSVR)
How selection works here
Michigan mandates qualifications-based selection only for state-level work under MCL 18.1237b, and EGLE's own State Revolving Fund guidance answers "Does Michigan have a required QBS process?" with a flat "No," relying instead on the federal Brooks Act, which means Flint-area local agencies are free to score price unless federal dollars are in the project (note that CWSRF equivalency projects do require QBS while Drinking Water SRF projects are excluded). On the MDOT side, Genesee County work runs through the Bay Region's Davison TSC and you must hold PSVR prequalification in the exact classifications named in the scope, and anything under $250,000 is never advertised: the project manager emails the scope to a minimum of three prequalified firms off the list, contacting at least one Small Business Program or DBE firm, so for small trunkline jobs the relationship with Davison TSC staff is the whole procurement. Geography pays on locally funded work: City of Flint solicitations carry a 7% price preference for firms inside the city limits plus 3.5% for Genesee County firms, and Genesee County's Purchasing Regulations award "Preferred Businesses" (primary place of business in the county with a property tax filing or assessment paid there in the last 12 months, or a veteran-owned business) an extra 5% of evaluation points, capped at 5 points, on both RFPs and RFQs. Both preferences are expressly void when the funding source prohibits them, which is exactly why the federally funded water line, street and airport work in Flint is winnable by outside firms while locally funded work rewards a Genesee County address.
The Flint 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 Flint metro, buyer moves, and portal changes. No pitch, just the market.
Email scott@bd-aec.com with the subject "Flint bid watchlist" and we'll add you.
Federal market
Federal AEC spending in Flint
Federal agencies obligated $2M for architecture, engineering, and construction work in the Flint metro over the last twelve months. Federal is not where this market is won. The work here runs through state, county, municipal, and private owners, which is where we point Flint business development.
Obligated, 12 months
$2M
Across the 1-county Flint, MI area.
Largest buyer
General Services Administration
$2M of the total.
Firms winning it
- Lang Constructors Inc · $2M
- US Diversified Contracting Services Inc · $90K
- Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc · $58K
- Atriax, P.L.L.C · $35K
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 Flint, by discipline
We embed a coordinated BD department for Flint AEC firms. We represent one firm per discipline, project type, and market. Open your discipline’s Flint page on the main site for the local picture.
Civil Engineering
Flint business development for civil engineering firms.
Structural Engineering
Flint business development for structural engineering firms.
Architecture
Flint business development for architecture firms.
Land Surveying & Geospatial
Flint business development for land surveying & geospatial firms.
Landscape Architecture
Flint business development for landscape architecture firms.
Construction Management
Flint business development for construction management firms.
Transportation & Traffic Engineering
Flint business development for transportation & traffic engineering firms.
Testing & Special Inspection
Flint business development for testing & special inspection firms.
Why us, here
An embedded BD department for Flint
BD-AEC runs business development in Flint, and Scott knows the owners, primes, and public agencies here by name. In a market this small and this scrutinized, that local knowledge is the whole game. It is the difference between a cold proposal that lands on a stranger's desk and a warm introduction to a buyer who already trusts the work you have delivered.
By policy, BD-AEC represents one firm per discipline, project type, and market, an ethical line that protects every client's pipeline. For a Flint 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 Flint market?
Yes. Scott runs business development in Flint directly, working the owners, primes, and public agencies here rather than from a distance. In a market this small, that means knowing the people who buy design and construction by name, from the industrial and public owners to the institutional buyers.
What kind of AEC firms do you represent in Flint?
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.
Flint public work is sensitive after the water crisis. Can you help us win it?
Yes, and that sensitivity is exactly why relationships matter here. The City of Flint and Genesee County are closely watched infrastructure owners, and they hire on trust and a track record, not the low bid. Scott works those agencies directly and knows how to position a firm for work that the owners feel they can defend.
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 Flint.
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.