VHB Opens Downtown Tampa Location To Expand Gulf Coast Services

TAMPA, FL – VHB, an engineering, science, planning and design firm with 23 offices along the east coast, announced the opening of its second location on Florida’s Gulf Coast in downtown Tampa.

The company’s expansion is in response to the growing demand for integrated transportation, land development and environmental services. The Tampa Bay area is one of the fastest growing regions in Florida, according to VHB.

From its existing location in Sarasota, VHB has been operating along the Gulf Coast for more than 35 years.

“It’s an ideal time and an ideal match,” said David Mulholland, southeast regional manager at VHB. “An area as geographically diverse and fast-growing as Tampa Bay produces complex transportation, planning, development and environmental challenges. That’s the type of culture in which VHB thrives.”

Mulholland said VHB choosing office locations where they can best serve clients from a geographical standpoint is not their only consideration.

“As we look to recruit new talent, it’s also important to be located in an area where people enjoy working,” he said. “Downtown Tampa fits the bill as it’s centrally located to our clients in the region, and the exciting growth downtown makes it a desirable place to work and live.”

The VHB Tampa location opens with a team dep in talent and experience in both urban and suburban communities, Mulholland said, with demands for new transportation and transit infrastructure planning, additional water resource solutions, traffic engineering and sustainable planning.

“VHB is equipped to provide integrated solutions to every type of project where the Tampa Bay area has needs,” he said.

VHB’s Tampa team includes:

• Brent A. Lacy, AICP, Transportation Lead: Lacy has more than four decades of experience in all facets of transportation planning, parking planning, land development and traffic impact studies. His project experience includes major transportation corridor studies, route location studies, medical and university campus planning, long-term healthcare facilities, growth management studies, access management and environment assessment studies. He has led or participated on projects throughout Florida including the Manatee County Compete Streets Design Guidelines, the Starkey Ranch DRI in Pasco County and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Raymond James Stadium Master Transportation Management Plan.
• Robert Woithe, Ph.D., Director of Environmental Services. Woithe has extensive experience from Florida to Texas in the design and implementation of environmental monitoring studies, environmental permitting, mitigation and habitat and wetland restoration projects. His expertise includes large environmental project management, coastal ecology, natural resource monitoring and habitat restoration and assessment. He led Tampa Bay Water’s hydrobiological monitoring programs for both the Alafia, Palm and Hillsborough rivers and the Desalination Facility, managed the Lake Tarpon water quality management plan, and has conducted a number of projects with the Peace River Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority.
• Benjamin Siwinski, CM, ENV SP, Senior Planner/Southeast Aviation Planner. Siwinski has worked nationally on aviation-related projects with an emphasis on environmental planning aircraft noise analyses, airport master planning and sustainability planning. His projects have encompassed both the civilian and military sectors and include facilities ranging in size from small general aviation airports to major large-hub air carrier airports in the United States and abroad.
• Gary Serviss, LEED AP, Managing Director. Serviss has 34 years of technical and project management experience in ecological assessments and permitting. He has extensive experience in water quality evaluations, aquatic resources assessments, wetland evaluation/classification, mitigation design, wildlife evaluations and habitat mapping. His projects include pollutant removal evaluations of the Clam Bayou in Pinellas County and McIntosh Park in Hillsborough County, and environmental assessment of the Brandon Urban and South Central Hillsborough Wellfields.
• Margaret Kubilins, PE, ENV SP, Traffic Engineering Manager. Kubilins brings extensive professional experience integrating traffic and mobility systems planning and design. She is a certified instructor of the “Designing for Pedestrian Safety” course for the Federal Highway Administration Office of Safety and has provided training to every FDOT District in this area of expertise.

Image via Aaron Kelly, Flickr, used under Creative Commons