A longtime Evansville business has a new owner, but officials say the partnership will only make the firm stronger.
Architecture, interior design, and engineering firm Hafer on Sept. 9 announced its acquisition by Denver, Colorado-based Galloway & Company. Galloway operates at 21 sites across the U.S. That number now includes Hafer’s locations in Evansville, Owensboro, Kentucky, Carbondale, Illinois, and Columbus, Ohio.
Hafer President Jeff Justice says the decision to seek an operating partnership evolved during the nearly 50-year-old firm’s strategic planning process. After exploring different possibilities, the firm considered Galloway the best fit. “Ultimately, we kept coming back to culture,” Justice says. “We were comfortable with their guiding principles, the fact that they valued their employees, community commitments, and client relationships, and their overall dedication to design excellence.”
“(Hafer is) obviously a firm with a fantastic reputation and client base, and a culture focused on the growth and development of people,” Galloway President of Architecture and Building Services Kristoffer Kenton tells Evansville Business. “That aligned really well with Galloway because we are a people-first organization. Even as we have expanded, people are our No. 1 focus.”
Justice underscores the company’s ongoing commitment to Evansville and its other service areas, where about 70 combined staff members are employed. “We’re not going anywhere,” he says. “It is the same people who this community knows. We will still be intricately involved in the community, providing expanded design services in a more expert way.”
“Our goal is to strengthen what makes Hafer special: its local leadership, its close relationships, and its ability to make a positive impact in Evansville and beyond,” Galloway Chief Executive Officer Dave Guetig added in a Sept. 9 news release.
Hafer’s design thumbprint is on major projects including the Deaconess Aquatic Center, Toyota Indiana YMCA of Gibson County, United Companies Air Center, facilities within the Deaconess and Ascension St. Vincent health systems, the University of Southern Indiana’s Health Professions complex, Wesselman Woods’s Arwood Family Treehouse, and McCutchanville Elementary School. Hafer also completed a multi-level redesign of its Downtown Evansville office space in late 2025.
Justice says the acquisition by Galloway will allow the Hafer team to tap into Galloway’s national architecture and engineering platforms, expanding Hafer’s professional services and resources available to their local clients. He adds that Hafer’s commitment to community involvement will remain: “All of those types of things are important to Galloway, and as I hope everybody knows, important to Hafer.”
For the time being, Hafer’s name will remain visible with the tagline, “A Galloway Company.” Justice and Kenton say there’s no firm timeframe for the company to become known as Galloway. “We want them to maintain that identity as long as they need to facilitate a successful transition,” Kenton says.
