When the University of Rhode Island was looking for a firm to design a plan for its rural Kingston campus to curb a flooding issue a few years ago, it chose a relatively small and new engineering firm.
That was in 2005, when Casali & D’Amico Engineering Inc. was brought in to develop a plan to fix the problem. The firm came up with a campus-wide plan that will cut down on storm water and flooding problems. The idea was accepted by URI planners earlier this year.
The contract proves that even a small engineering firm focused on holding prices down can attract a large client like URI.
Company President Joseph Casali started the business when he was 29. He says sales and employees have grown steadily at the five-year-old firm.
“Truthfully, I just got tired of making money for other people,” he said last week. “I just wanted to see if I could make it on my own. It was a small, sole-proprietorship and I actually moved into a former barber shop when I opened. It was a 20-by-20-foot room.”
Now, the firm annually completes a few hundred projects and has worked with Pawtucket Credit Union, Bank Rhode Island and the automotive dealer Hurd, for whom it designed a Hummer dealership in Johnston. The firm recently completed a $7 million athletic facility for Saint Raphael’s Academy in Pawtucket, Casali said.
“We do anything from a single-family home to something as large as that Hummer dealership, and that’s what we pride ourselves on,” he said, adding that they also do even smaller work, including residential sewer design. “We’re small and intimate, but we can do large and intricate.”
The firm has grown from a one-man firm – then dubbed Joe Casali Engineering – to 18 employees. Of those, two are professional engineers and six are engineers in training. Most are URI graduates. And during May 2006 Casali took on a partner, David D’Amico, who had worked for Cataldo Associates Inc., to help handle the increasing workload.
In hiring, too, Casali has put together a team with a range of skills. There’s a wetland biologist, a soil evaluator, traffic engineers and residential designers. “That’s what, I think, makes our clientele happy,” Casali said. “Other than an architect, if we’re working on a building, it’s really one-stop shopping. We can provide anything with our staff.”
Casali, a former assistant town engineer in Smithfield, said that comprehensive approach is common for large, regional firms, but smaller firms usually offer a limited range of service. “So that has been our niche in the market.”
It’s also helped the firm to attract work, despite the economic downturn in the Ocean State. “Now that the economy is down, we’re not downsizing, we just haven’t been growing as steadily and we’re starting to stabilize,” Casali said.
Last year, the firm recorded sales of about $1.75 million, which was about 15-times the first year’s sales, Casali said.
Casali – who has a B.S. and an MBA from URI – is a registered professional engineer in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts. He’s now looking to grow his business in the latter.
For now, Casali isn’t planning to curb the company’s organic growth. He doesn’t have a set goal for size or number of employees, he said. “I will grow as long as we can keep the quality high,” he said. “I’ll let the market dictate my actual size.”
Casali hasn’t always been so confident about future growth. When he founded the firm – he opened his doors on January 1, 2003 – he was also building his family a house.
“What I figured was that if the company failed then I could just sell the house, make myself a salary and go back to work for someone else,” he said.
The firm grew so rapidly that he moved it into that house, then into another bigger office in Cranston – on Uxbridge Street, now the firm’s satellite office – before moving to Warwick. •
company profile
Casali & D’Amico Engineering Inc.
OWNERS: Joseph Casali and
David D’Amico
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Engineering
LOCATION: 300 Post Road, Warwick
EMPLOYEES: 18
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 2003
ANNUAL SALES: $1.75 million
