blog > Eight Predictions for 2025
Eight Predictions for 2025
by Mick Morrissey
The Morrissey Goodale team shares its forecast for the coming year.

Eight Predictions for 2025
I’ll get right to it. I’m shockingly bad at making predictions. If you’re looking for someone to tell you what’s going to happen next, I’m not your man. My team knows this all too well. “We’ll never launch a podcast,” I declared last year. Sure enough, our first pod featuring Mike Carragher, CEO of VHB (ENR #62), drops this month. “I just can’t see us having an office in the Midwest any time soon,” I said confidently in last June’s all-team meeting. So it was no surprise this week when Jon Escobar posted photos of our four-person Chicago team out to dinner celebrating our new Windy City office.
But while my predictive powers are as suspect as a Magic 8 ball, that’s hardly the case with my esteemed teammates. Here are eight predictions for 2025 from the Morrissey Goodale team:
1. Playing the golden oldies: 2025 will bring a shift in federal infrastructure priorities. The new administration will roll out a back-to-basics agenda focused on traditional projects like roads, bridges, and highways. Firms specializing in renewables will need to lean harder on state-level funding or private clients. Firms geared toward conventional infrastructure will book up fast. (Mark Goodale, Managing Principal, Natick, MA)
2. But clients may come back onshore: Manufacturing, oil and gas, and other critical industries to national security will feel pressure to bring production back onshore. This will require additional capacity in the U.S. and spur AEC services such as site selection; industrial, manufacturing and data center design and construction; and increasing available energy to power these new facilities. (Stafford Palmieri Sievert, Principal Advisor, Salt Lake City, UT)
3. Increasing globalization: Global deal volume will increase, driven by overseas buyers looking to enter or increase their positions in the super-hot U.S. market. As if to prove the point, the first two acquisitions of the new year involving ENR 500 firms were to overseas buyers. In the first, Tata Consulting Engineers (Mumbai, India) acquired CDI Engineering Solutions (Houston, TX) (ENR #201). Link to details. In the second, the SOCOTEC Group (Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France) strengthened its position in the U.S. with the acquisition of Ninyo & Moore (San Diego, CA) (ENR #212). Link to details. Global deal-making is up 10% over the past 12 months. (Nate Wentworth, Vice President, Denver, CO)
4. The juggernauts keep rolling: As the industry continues to consolidate, we will see a shift in deal size. There will be more “mega mergers” among the ENR Top 100, creating new multi-billion-dollar companies seeking to dominate the industry. (Brendon Cussio, Principal, Sell-Side Practice Leader, Denver, CO)
5. The pendulum swings back to buildings: While infrastructure firms have made up most of industry consolidation over the past decade, 2025 will see increased focus on firms serving buildings and vertical markets. Stabilizing interest rates, easing inflation, and corporate return-to-office mandates will fuel private-sector investment in real estate, mixed-use developments, and institutional markets such as health care and education. Firms serving these markets are poised to reclaim a more prominent role in the M&A spotlight. (Jon Escobar, Principal, Buy-Side Practice Leader, Chicago, IL)
6. The separation between haves and have-nots will become clearer and clearer: The haves—those who invested in technology and see AI as a way of solving the chronic talent gap—will find their work done faster, their clients happier, and their firms worth more. The have-nots—those stuck in systems and processes that worked great 10 to 20 years ago—will fail on all counts. (Nick Belitz, Principal, Advisory Services Leader, Denver, CO)
7. This time we really mean it: Long a technology laggard, the industry will accelerate automation efforts. The aging workforce and immigration climate will continue to add more stress to the domestic labor supply, accelerating automation investments. Capital available from private equity will be invested to fund efforts on AI implementation resulting in ever-increasing strains on our power grid. (David Thornhill, Vice President, New York, NY)
8. 6%-7% mortgage rates are actually normal: Project owners will throw in the towel and accept that even though current interest rates are among the highest in 15 years, this increase is likely here to stay. The ultra-low interest rates since the 2008 financial crisis were exceptional by historical standards, and we shouldn’t expect to see those levels again anytime soon. As a result, business models that require low interest rates will fizzle and private owners will focus on cost efficiencies and high-value projects. (Allie Tepper, Principal Advisor, San Francisco, CA)
Kick off 2025 in the sun, meet our entire team of soothsayers, and network with over 200 AE industry executives, investors, and experts at our 11th annual Southeast M&A and Business Symposium in Miami this March. Check out some of the firms that have already registered to attend here. New for this year are our exclusive peer-to-peer networking dinners hosted by our principals Nick Belitz, Brendon Cussio, and Jon Escobar. These are almost sold out, so register now to reserve your place at the table.
What are you predicting for 2025? Email or call Mick Morrissey at [email protected] or 508.380.1868.
March 12-14, 2025 Miami, FL
Southeast M&A and Business Symposium
Over two-plus information-packed days, come together to discuss strategy, innovation, and M&A trends while networking with AE industry executives.
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