Partner Grows 19% in 2024 Despite Challenging Commercial Real Estate Market

Partner Expands Environmental Solutions Group in Remediation & PFAS

Published in the Environmental Business Journal, Volume 38, Numbers 3/4: Q2 2025, EBJ Environmental Industry Outlook 2025. Click to download the full article.

Partner Engineering and Science Inc. (Partner) is a full-service engineering, environmental, and energy consulting firm serving all of North America and Western Europe. We specialize in evaluating properties in connection with real estate transactions, development, or management. This includes Building Assessments and Engineering; Roofing/MEP/HVAC/Pavement Evaluations; Construction Risk Management; Energy and Sustainability Consulting; Environmental Consulting and Remediation; Health, Safety, and Compliance Consulting, Industrial Hygiene; Geotechnical Investigations; Land Surveys; and Site Civil Engineering. Partner has 1,400+ employees in 40 offices throughout the US and Europe. Partner works in all 50 states as well as internationally. Partner has 40 regional offices strategically located around the country, and a strong local presence in California.

Joe Derhake, CEO. A successful entrepreneur, Mr. Derhake founded Partner with eight employees, and the company has rapidly evolved to more than 1,200 employees throughout North America and Europe. With over 25 years of experience as a professional engineer, Mr. Derhake has delivered consulting services for thousands of real estate transactions, subsurface investigations, and site remediation projects for leading national corporations, lenders, and real estate investors. Through this, Mr. Derhake and Partner have been afforded great access to key policy credit managers with national and regional lenders, providing the opportunity to participate in the writing and reviewing of environmental and engineering due diligence policies for over twenty large financial institutions.

Suzi Rosen, Managing Director, Environmental Solutions Group. With over 20 years of experience in the environmental consulting industry, Ms. Rosen consults on and manages projects across the U.S., specializing in environmental due diligence, site assessment and remediation; environmental litigation support/expert opinion; and environmental compliance for both the public and private sectors. She is experienced in industrial, commercial, and residential property transactions/redevelopment, oil and gas, transportation, ports, municipalities, chemical, manufacturing, public school, military, and Brownfield redevelopment industries.

Bryan Hill, Technical Director. Mr. Hill serves as a Technical Director at Partner Engineering and Science, bringing over 20 years of experience and professional guidance in environmental consulting and industrial hygiene services. A California Certified Asbestos Consultant, he specializes in indoor air quality assessment, hazardous materials management, and disaster response services. His notable achievements include developing nationwide COVID-19 disinfection protocols, managing hurricane relief projects, and conducting extensive wildfire-related environmental assessments.

The commercial real estate landscape is in a state of flux, with both challenges and opportunities shaping the market over the next few years. While there is ample investment capital waiting to be deployed and a strong appetite for lending across various debt types, unpredictability in the macroeconomic environment, elevated interest rates, and a looming wave of maturities — nearly $1 trillion in CRE mortgages set to mature in 2025 — are creating headwinds.

EBJ: What type of growth has Partner experienced over the past few years? What specific strategies have you implemented that drove this success?

Partner: We experienced significant growth in 2024, with annual revenue increasing to $334,204 from $279,640 in 2023. To support this growth and in anticipation of increasing demand, we have increased our staff from 1,300 employees in 2023 to over 1,400 at present. We attribute our growth to the uniqueness of our service offering, namely the ability to deliver a high-quality bundle of due diligence services at the speed and scale that the commercial real estate (CRE) industry demands, and the breadth of our technical expertise, which allows us to provide a complete range of assessments and solutions for the full lifecycle of a CRE asset. We leveraged this service offering, along with our relationship-driven, single-point-of-contact service model, to increase sales despite challenges in the 2024 CRE market.

EBJ: What are some of the major milestones Partner has achieved recently? How have these accomplishments impacted your business operations or client relationships?

Partner: Our Environmental Solutions Group has doubled in size over the last three years, establishing a full-service, national remediation practice.  Our Environmental Solutions Group is a diverse team of talented environmental consultants, including licensed geologists, engineers, New Jersey LSRPs, Connecticut LEPs, Nevada CEMs, etc., that have the pertinent experience to navigate regulatory closures across the United States.

We have established a robust team for vapor intrusion mitigation, self-performing sub-slab depressurization systems (SSDS), and designing and installing VOC and methane mitigation barrier vapor intrusion mitigation systems (VIMs) for new construction projects.

Our PFAS Thought Leadership and Remedial Cost Estimating teams have developed into significant resources for our clients, navigated the sale and purchase of their assets, aiding in evaluating and estimating potential environmental risk, and developing solutions for clients that were not available prior to our growth.  The expansion of our Environmental Solutions team was an investment by Partner and has allowed us to serve our clients in the remediation/mitigation and regulatory sectors across the United States, without interruption. This has, in turn, solidified and expanded our client relationships and increased our business operation as a “one-stop shop” for our clients.

EBJ: Elaborate on the range of post-fire response projects that Partner is involved with. How are these services tailored to meet the specific needs of affected communities and businesses?

Partner: Providing initial assessments, for example, for residents with homes still standing that have been affected by wildfire debris, and providing consulting services with regard to insurance claims. Commercial buildings and residential properties which are considered total losses. Providing hazardous materials surveys/evaluations. Soil surveys for heavy metals and regulated hazardous materials (asbestos). Indoor air quality assessments for Particles and VOCs. Post cleaning/restoration verification assessments & sampling.

Partner was selected as the primary environmental consultant for the community’s main grocery store, which is considered a “staple” in the community. The company has been an instrumental consultant in specific communities, with over 15 residents trusting Partner as their go-to consultant.

EBJ: Partner has focused on the commercial real estate market. Can you provide an overview of the current landscape within the commercial real estate sector? What significant changes do you foresee over the next couple of years?

Partner: The commercial real estate landscape is in a state of flux, with both challenges and opportunities shaping the market over the next few years. While there is ample investment capital waiting to be deployed and a strong appetite for lending across various debt types, unpredictability in the macroeconomic environment, elevated interest rates, and a looming wave of maturities — nearly $1 trillion in CRE mortgages set to mature in 2025 — are creating headwinds. Lenders are expected to take a firmer stance on extensions, which may lead to increased sales, refinancing, loan workouts, or foreclosures.

Key trends include a growing need for strategies to manage distressed assets, continued activity in bridge lending to address transitional and distressed properties, and heightened construction challenges driven by labor shortages, fluctuating costs, and new regulatory requirements. Rising insurance rates due to climate risks are also impacting property values, pushing borrowers to seek resilience data for insurance negotiations.

Additionally, Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing is gaining traction as a tool for green projects. Amid these dynamics, market participants are urged to adopt creative deal structures and be ready to act when interest rates shift, ensuring they remain competitive in an evolving landscape.

EBJ: How are the following of your key service areas evolving?

Environmental Site Assessments

Our practice is evolving through the use of technology and training. We are using computer programs and apps like Fulcrum to be able to collect better field data that is seamless to communicate between team members, so that they can see data being collected in the field as it is happening. We are hopefully on schedule to have our reports written into BlueLynx later this year, and that data collected through Fulcrum will then be loaded into the report, becoming more efficient and seamless.

We are also using Power BI to collect data for analysis of what types of sites/properties we see most types of contamination. We are evolving through training and becoming more consistent as a national practice. Focusing as well on training and implementing PFAS assessment and staying ahead of the curve on the ever-changing topic.

NEPA Assessments and Compliance

The practice surrounding NEPA assessments and compliance is evolving in response to shifting regulatory frameworks, environmental priorities, and technological advancements. With the transition from Biden to Trump, the current federal administration continues to target, refine, and likely limit the NEPA process and regulations, with recent updates emphasizing climate change considerations, environmental justice, and lots of speculation about streamlined review processes. Each lead agency is assigned with implementing NEPA. Federal agencies are placing increased emphasis on cumulative impacts, requiring more comprehensive analysis of interconnected environmental factors.

With the EJScreen tool temporarily offline, practitioners are adopting alternative methods to evaluate demographic and socioeconomic data to assess disproportionate impacts on underserved communities. GIS mapping, remote sensing, and predictive modeling are becoming increasingly essential for streamlining environmental reviews and improving accuracy. Tools like ArcGIS, IPaC, and HIFLD are enhancing data visualization, allowing teams to identify potential impacts more efficiently. Digital platforms like HEROS (for HUD) and e-NEPA (for FHWA) are improving documentation, collaboration, and public access.

The rise of renewable energy and infrastructure resilience projects has introduced new NEPA considerations, such as battery storage facilities, utility corridors, and offshore wind development. Funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law drove a surge in federally funded projects requiring NEPA review, transforming NEPA compliance into a more proactive, data-driven, and collaborative process, requiring both technical expertise and adaptability to navigate evolving requirements.

EBJ: Elaborate on the scope and objectives of your Environmental Health & Safety practice. How has this practice adapted over the past few years?

Partner: Our EHS team aims to help with our clients’ challenges related to regulatory compliance, along with a focus on other risks that impact their businesses. We align our strategies with our client’s corporate objectives by not only focusing on compliance issues but also developing strategies to manage all risks and liabilities through the creation of a culture of safety that reduces loss, improves employee morale, and drives better financial performance. Businesses implementing this type of approach to EHS realize operational efficiencies, business continuity, and increases in profit.

Due to the continuous changes in regulations and environmental conditions that impact human health and safety, Partner is challenged with creating strategies to help our clients respond to these events. COVID-19 was a global event creating a new horizon for everyone, with no road map to follow. We successfully developed Building Hygiene Plans created to assist our clients in managing all aspects of staff reentry to the workplaces through planning, monitoring, and training. We used proven scientific testing, ATP, to determine the presence of living organic material, created a cleaning protocol to ensure continued cleanliness and reduction in the transmission of COVID, and reconfigured pathways and occupancy loads to manage staff contact. These strategies allowed our clients to remain open, retain staff, and generate revenue and profit through a challenging time.

The way businesses communicate has changed significantly over the past several years. Clients demand easier and more efficient means to deliver data and communicate across their business lines. Partner’s EHS team continues to look for improvement opportunities in communication and operational processes through the integration of more sophisticated technologies to respond to client needs. Implementation of our report delivery and management software, BlueLynx, creates easy access to information, which assists our clients in quicker response to internal events and to support future planning. Additionally, Partner’s EHS team continues to improve its field data collection methods through the use of a software tool designed to improve client turnaround time and assure quality control.