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

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.

The Kleingers Group’s vision is to be the destination for our people and the market. We are committed to being a company clients choose to work with and employees seek to be a part of it. The workspace is an essential component, and our existing space doesn’t match our vision.

Based on our employees’ feedback and our brand standards, we designed a new space that blends their wants and needs for a productive and fun workplace. The new office features:

• Four different styles of rooms, ranging from a large conference room to small huddle spaces for smaller groups
• An exterior garage door that leads to the back parking lot, allowing us to open on beautiful days to let fresh air in and host indoor/outdoor parties
• Digital connectivity in every room
• Custom-built picnic tables made by our employees

The new space is an employee-focused environment featuring equal work areas for all, including the CEO to our co-ops.  We’re creating a comfortable space that provides some of the luxuries of working from home or a nearby coffee shop while creating a showpiece that our employees are proud to show off. The office combines many aspects more common in downtown offices, such as open floor plans and a variety of huddle spaces. It is complemented with suburban office advantages, like generous space per person, easy parking, and larger communal areas.

Tri-County Mall Redevelopment project has moved one step further. MarketSpace Capital and Park Harbor Capital announced the official closing of their purchase of Tri-County Mall, located in Springdale, OH. This important milestone signifies the transfer of ownership to the Texas-based co-developers and the beginning of a new era for one of Greater Cincinnati’s most recognized destinations.

“Today is a day many of us dreamed of but never thought would happen,” said Springdale Mayor Doyle Webster. “It’s the biggest project in the history of our city and one of the most ambitious undertakings our entire region has ever seen. It will bring jobs, inspire community, cultivate learning, and ignite growth. I could not be more excited that we are now officially on our way.”

The $1 billion Tri-County Mall Redevelopment project received unanimous approval from the Springdale City Council just ten weeks ago and is now set to begin construction later this year. The project will transform the largest – and mostly vacant – shopping mall in Greater Cincinnati into one of the largest mixed-use developments in the state. It will include new apartment communities, restaurants, retail and office spaces, educational facilities, entertainment, and recreational areas, a culinary center, and 15 acres of green space, including a dog-friendly restaurant with an accompanying park. The site will also be home to a 120,000 square foot STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) Institute serving Princeton School District.

Project Team

Owners: MarketSpace Capital LLC  and Park Harbor Capital LLC

Structural Engineer: THP

Geotech/Environmental: Terracon

Civil and Traffic Engineering: Kleingers Group

Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing Engineers: Heapy

Prime Architect: BHDP

Landscape Architect: Human nature

Lighting: TEC studios

Code Compliance: Preview Group

Acoustic Engineer: ADK

Read more about the project at Construction Review Online

Built on the foundations of trust, respect, and responsibility, the Winton Woods South Campus Elementary provides 1st through 6th-grade students with spaces to explore deeper learning experiences.

Having committed to Project-Based learning in 2011, the district recognized that their kids were the experts on what their new school should be. These student visionaries identified four themes that drove the design of their new school: Community & Culture, Show & Tell, Eat & Learn, and Inside & Outside.

Read more about Winton Woods’ award-winning Elementary School at Learning By Design.

Project Team

Architect: SHP

Land Surveying: The Kleingers Group

Surrounded by elected officials, UofL Health leaders unveiled the rendering to a new $144 million project Thursday morning inside the Jackson Street outpatient center.

The project is a massive expansion at the downtown hospital.

Speaking to the crowd present, UofL Health CEO Tom Miller said, though the price tag for the project is $144 million, its impact will be priceless.

“Every day, for the last year, we have not been able to meet the need of our patients,” Miller said. “We never say no to anybody in need, but we’ve held 40 patients a day in our emergency room in our emergency unit. [Those are] Patients that are never getting a bed. We had to fix that.”

Photo Credit: University of Louisville

Read more about the University of Louisville’s hospital expansion at WLKY.

A Chicago-based real estate company purchased nearly 50 acres of land in Northern Kentucky to build a speculative industrial building.

Brennan Investment Group, a private real estate investment firm that acquires, develops and operates industrial properties, purchased more than 48.6 acres of land along Dixie Highway in Walton from Walton Farm LLC for nearly $2.9 million. There, Brennan plans to develop a state-of-the-art, modern, cross-dock distribution building totaling 575,000 square feet.

Doug Lance, vice president with Brennan Investment Group, said the as-of-yet unnamed facility will be built speculatively, meaning there are no signed tenants for the space at this point. However, he said the area south of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and along Interstate 75 is an ideal location for logistics and distribution companies.

“There is so much activity,” Lance told me. “The absorption rate has been at record levels the past few years.”

Project Team

Owner: Brennan Investment Group

Builder: Paul Hemmer Cos.

Architect: ATA Beilharz Architects

Civil Engineering: The Kleingers Group

Read more at The Cincinnati Business Courier.

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.