The Kleingers Group, one of the Midwest’s leading civil engineering, land surveying, and landscape architecture firms, has announced its transition to 100% employee ownership through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), effective September 1, 2025.

This move ensures the firm’s long-term independence and rewards the employees who have helped build its success. Through the ESOP, all shares of the company are now held in trust for the benefit of employees, offering them a valuable, long-term retirement benefit at no cost.

Kleingers’ leadership team remains the same and continues to run daily operations with added accountability to the new employee-owners, reinforcing the firm’s collaborative culture and client-first values.

“We’re in a strong position to transition to an ESOP now, and it’s a forward-looking move that safeguards future leadership transitions and creates lasting wealth for our employees,” said Tim Casto, CEO and President of The Kleingers Group. “As we move from second-generation ownership to the next, this sets the stage for a sustainable, employee-driven future. It secures our future, while staying true to who we are as a local, independent company.”

Founded in 1993, The Kleingers Group has grown to more than 170 employees across six offices in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Florida, and adding a seventh office this month. The firm was ranked the fifth largest engineering company in the Cincinnati region in 2025, and is known for notable projects including TQL Stadium, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Critical Care Tower Expansion, the Cincinnati Black Music Walk of Fame, Union Terminal Plaza Restoration, and the University of Cincinnati Sheakley Indoor Practice Facility and Athletics Performance Center. Recognized as a Top Workplace in Cincinnati for three consecutive years and a Best Place to Work in Louisville, Kleingers has laid a strong foundation for this natural transition to employee ownership.

“As a 100% employee-owned company, Kleingers is here to stay,” added Casto, “We continue to be rooted in our communities, committed to serving clients, invested in the places where we live and work, and are building a lasting legacy that honors our people-first culture for sustained success. Together We Build. Together We Benefit.”

Read More at Cincinnati Business Courier

Join us for The Kleingers Group 8th Annual Charity Golf Outing on September 22, 2025, from noon to 6 PM. All skill levels are invited to enjoy 18 holes at the beautiful Hickory Hills Golf Club and compete for fun prizes. All proceeds from the outing benefit our chosen charity, Pelotonia. Founded in 2008, Pelotonia has raised over $309 million for cancer research. They direct 100 percent of participant-raised funds to cancer research at Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, including the Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology.

The outing starts promptly at noon, and concludes with a dinner reception and awards. Prizes for golf challenges – Guess Your Shot, Closest to the Pin, Long Drive, and more – will be awarded at the reception. All participants will receive a special gift package.

The day includes green fees, golf cart, on-course refreshments and snacks, reception dinner, and a special gift package:

• Foursome – $700.00
• Twosome – $350.00
• Dinner Only – $50.00

Register Here

The Kleingers Group’s own Shelby County Kentucky Surveyor and regionally infamous “sharp-dressed-man,” Christopher Morris, PLS, recently met with Kentucky Speaker of the House David Osborne in his Frankfort office. As part of the “Home Builders Association of Kentucky Day at the Capitol,” Morris found it especially important to support the HBAK Workforce Development policy enabling students to use KEES funds for various educational and training programs in the skilled trades.

KEES Funds are slated for Kentucky Workforce Development. The HBAK policy would allow their application by Kentucky residents toward both registered skilled trade apprenticeship programs and degree-based coursework. These could include land surveying certificate programs, bachelor’s level degrees in civil engineering, and registered apprenticeship programs as an electrician, ironworker, carpenter and more.

Morris says, “No civil engineering or construction project can reach its full potential without the applied knowledge, skill, talent, and wisdom of both college graduates and experienced, skilled tradesmen. With this policy, more Kentucky graduates can get KEES funds to pursue the path they’re passionate about – whether it’s in the skilled trades or in college – it’s up to them. That’s great for every project – in every Kentucky community.”

The Kleingers Group and its talented teams recognize the need for a strong and skilled workforce throughout our AEC sector. It is critical to support both university and skilled trade educational programs. For more information on Kentucky’s KEES Fundin

Program, click here.

On Tuesday afternoon, The Kleingers Group, a civil engineering company based in West Chester, Ohio, presented Kyle Schwarber, 28, a 2011 Middletown High School graduate and MLB free agent, a $10,000 check to assist the grass-roots organization, Middie Way Baseball.

The check was presented by Tim Casto, CEO, and president of Kleingers Group. “This is our way to give back to the community,” Founder Jim Kleingers said during a phone interview while attending a meeting in Louisville. “We have known Kyle since he was a kid. It’s a great story that he wants to come back and lend his name to youth baseball. This is worthwhile for us and our community.”

Read more about how Kleingers works to give back to the community of Middletown at Yahoo! News.

Happy 20th anniversary to our very first branch, the Columbus office! Thank you to all who have contributed to its success and for the hard work you have dedicated to make it a strong influence in the communities it serves. We are proud of your accomplishments and can’t wait to see what else is in store. Let’s cheers to the years to come.

Watch our anniversary video below:

Jim had an interview over coffee with Juli Smith, President of Smith Consulting Group, LLC.

“Jim shares with us his journey of becoming an engineer, how embracing change and taking risks is a good thing, what being a servant leader means to him, and why he doesn’t have any professional regrets.”

Click this link to read more about Jim’s journey and see how awesome he is.

On Friday 9/13/19, at our all-employee annual meeting, we took a break from talking strategy, finances, and branding to build 60 cabinets for Adopt A Book to donate to the community. Depending on which employee you talk to, it was either the best or worst thing we’ve done in a while (hint: the cabinets were from IKEA). Definitely one or the other. A special thank you also goes out to the employees who collected over 1,000 books. Way to go!

The Cincinnati Preschool Promise, Cheviot Academy, LEAP Academy, Riverview East Academy, Cincinnati Early Learning Centers, Inc. – CELC, First Step Home, Butler County Educational Service Center, The HealthCare Connection, Good Samaritan Hospital – we hope you enjoy your cabinets. We may or may not have an employee uprising on our hands if we ask our people to build any more IKEA furniture.

#GoodatMathSurprisinglyHuman

The Kleingers Group donated 122 items over the course of 9 months to Cincinnati Computers Cooperative. We love to support local businesses and help the community! Click here http://www.cincinnaticomputercooperative.org/donate-your-c…/ to find out how YOU can make a difference too.

Congratulations to Jim Kleingers for winning C-Suite’s 2019 CEO of the Year award! The C-Suite Awards Program honors C-level executives from companies across the greater Cincinnati region for their contribution and commitment to the community and their outstanding professional performance.

Jim is consistently humbled by the support he’s received and giving back is almost imperative. The list of organizations he supports is impressive, but what is more impressive is the amount of time and genuine interest he has in each one. Despite serving in so many places, he continues to accept additional responsibility when asked. From fundraisers to one-on-one time with individual scouts, Jim gives of his time freely and willfully.

Jim Kleingers, PE, PS
President / CEO

Thank you, Jim, for leading and living by example!

What’s in a name? Well, a lot, especially when it’s a name some have a hard time saying! Watch how many different ways Kleingers is pronounced.

The Kleingers Group’s vision is to be a destination for our people and the market. Realistically, that means being a company clients choose to work with and employees want to be a part of. The physical space is a critical component of that. Our former building didn’t match that vision.

Based on feedback from our own employees, we built a new space that boasts their specific goals in mind. The new office features:

• Nine different types of rooms, ranging from large conference rooms to small huddle spaces for just a few people to a private room for marking up plans digitally
• An additional ten different open collaboration spaces, ranging from a central team table to couches and coffee tables, to a coffee nook
• Digital connectivity from every room
• Interior garage doors to allow for more flexibility in the training space
• Lots of glass to provide plenty of natural light
• Custom built tables and wall enhancements built by employees

The new space is an employee-focused environment with the same setup for new co-ops as is available to the CEO. It was built with the intention of creating a comfortable space that provided some of the luxuries of working from home or a nearby coffee shop while creating a space that employees are proud to show off.

The office combines many of the aspects more common in downtown offices, such as open space and a variety of huddle spaces. Additionally, it boasts some of the advantages of a more suburban office, such as more generous space per person, easy parking, and larger communal spaces.

For the month of November, The Kleingers Group hosted a book drive to support the Adopt a Book foundation. Adopt a Book is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing disadvantaged kids, located in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky areas, with books of their own. We were thrilled to support such a worthy cause for our communities.

Throughout the month, employees had incentives to donate. These incentives came in the form of weekly raffle drawings for $25 Visa gift cards. On top of that, the group that donated the most books received a pizza party. Let’s just say that people were

Books were gathered and the month came to an end with great results. We collected 1,175 children’s books, 60 bookmarks, and 32 tote bags! In the end, the West Chester Survey Group were the big winners of the pizza party.

Thank you everyone for your participation in the book drive!