Jacksonville-based Goodson Bergen & Associates Consulting Engineers Inc. now is part of Illinois-based employee-owned Baxter & Woodman Inc., which has been expanding into Florida with acquisitions since 2016.
As of March 13, Edward Goodson and Jeffrey Bergen sold what now is known as GBA, a Baxter & Woodman company.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
A decade ago, Baxter & Woodman, primarily an infrastructure planning and engineering design firm, expanded into Florida with a merger in West Palm Beach. It followed with acquisitions in Orlando, St. Augustine, Green Cove Springs and Fernandina Beach.
Edward Goodson and Louis Haussmann, Baxter & Woodman president and CEO, agreed in an interview April 1 that their firms’ focuses aligned.
Goodson and Bergen started their company in 2018 and will stay onboard. Their full-time staff of four and outsourced resources will remain as well.
“Lou said, ‘You just keep being who you are,’” Goodson said. “That resonated with us.”
“Continuity is a priority for us,” Haussmann said.
Goodson, 65, and Bergen, 53, have three-year commitments. Baxter & Woodman announced that they are shareholders in the firm and associate vice presidents in its Florida region.
Goodson Bergen & Associates’ projects include those in the commercial, government, hospitality, multifamily, religious, transportation and specialty industries.
The company provides feasibility studies, site planning, stormwater management, utility infrastructure, site and grading drainage, flood plain studies and modeling, erosion and sediment control plans and other civil engineering services.
“Our experience related to civil engineering development for both public and private projects in conjunction with our relationship-focused approach we have with both our clients and the regulatory agencies is what GBA prides itself on,” Goodson said.
Projects and clients include Jacksonville and Clay County fire stations, Fleet Landing, St. John the Divine Greek Orthodox Church, Citigroup campus improvements, the Federal Reserve, DL Cabinetry, Diocese of St. Augustine, the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, National Guard, Zaxbys restaurants and multiple medical developments.
GBA’s offices are at 11555 Central Parkway, at southeast Beach Boulevard and Interstate 295.
“We try to look at our clients as relationships to the point of friendships,” Goodson said. “Our clients have been very supportive” of the sale, he said.
Haussmann said that Baxter & Woodman had been seeking entry into small civil site design, design-build and government business, which led him to Goodson Bergen.
Goodson said the introduction came through Tocoi Engineering, also part of Baxter & Woodman.
“Things just aligned,” Goodson said. “They provide services we don’t do, and vice versa.”
Goodson also said that Baxter & Woodman’s community service foundation, B&W Cares, also was a deciding factor, as was the fact the established company is 100% employee-owned.
The 80-year-old Baxter & Woodman is based in Crystal Lake, near Chicago. It has 460 employees in Florida, Illinois, Texas and Wisconsin.
Haussmann said the company merged with a West Palm Beach firm in 2016 to enter the Florida market in water, wastewater infrastructure and transportation services.
“It’s hard to service the whole state from one office,” he said.
Baxter & Woodman needed more locations, so it acquired a firm in Orlando in 2018 followed by acquisitions in 2025 in Northeast Florida.
Baxter & Woodman on Jan. 1, 2025, acquired Tocoi Engineering with offices in Green Cove Springs and St. Augustine. A Dec. 5, 2025, purchase of McCranie & Associates in Fernandina Beach followed.
The companies now operate as Tocoi Engineering, a Baxter & Woodman company, and M&A, a Baxter & Woodman company.
The BaxterWoodman.com site shows six Florida offices in Fernandina Beach, Green Cove Springs, Jacksonville, Orlando, St. Augustine and West Palm Beach.