Queensland’s growing infrastructure and property industry are behind the merger of Gadens Brisbane and Maunsell Pennington. The two firms, who will be officially merged by February 2011, said they were both looking to grow their business to meet the “predicted” needs of the market. “We were at a point where we had to decide whether we looked to grow, internally, which meant adding new staff and finding bigger premises, or with another firm,” said managing partner of Maunsell Pennington, David Maunsell. “We were in the process of considering this option when we were approached by Gadens.”

According to Gadens Brisbane partner Lionel Hogg, Gadens was in a similar situation: “We have been growing quite steadily for a number of years. We recently had to take another floor in the building across the road to accommodate extra staff, so we have the space for Maunsell Pennington,” explained Hogg.

Hogg said there had been significant growth in infrastructure work in the region. Even though the property market has been slower in the last 12 months, Gadens is expecting extra work in these areas and wanted to have resources ready to deal with it, which Maunsell Pennington could provide. “We had practice areas that would fit well with those areas that Gadens wanted to expand in, particularly the construction and body corporate areas,” said Maunsell.

Hogg added: “The market is changing so rapidly, that everyone, firms of all sizes need to think ahead. Where will we be sitting in a couple of years time?”

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