Morgan City man charged with stealing vehicle driven in fatal crash
October 6, 2009
James "Jim" Templet
October 8, 2009
GSE Associates, the nearly half-century-old Houma engineering firm, has merged with a holding company that owns Providence Engineering and Environmental Group in Baton Rouge, said Rich Major, senior managing partner with Providence.
The merger with Providence Holding Company, LLC, took place on Aug. 31, Major said.
Arthur De Fraites, Jr., the president of GSE who had been sole owner, is now the co-owner with two of his employees and Providence Holding, De Fraites said.
GSE has numerous contracts with levee, fire protection, school, recreation and sewer districts in the Tri-parishes. No changes will occur in those contracts because of the transfer in ownership, De Fraites said.
GSE, which had been a corporation, was required to become a limited liability company to merge with Providence. Under Internal Revenue Service rules, LLCs, like Providence, cannot have ownership in a corporation, De Fraites said. Providence had to agree to GSE’s becoming an LLC, he said. The name of the firm will remain GSE Associates.
De Fraites said governmental bodies having contracts with GSE must recognize the change in the firm’s status, including the Terrebonne Levee District, the Terrebonne Parish Council and the Terrebonne Parish School District.
GSE has contracts to work on five stretches of the Morganza-to-the-Gulf levee system: J-2, which runs from Montegut to Pointe-aux-Chenes; J-3 in Pointe- aux-Chenes; E, along the Falgout Canal Road in Dulac; and G and H-1, which runs from the Houma Navigation Canal locks to Bayou Little Caillou.
De Fraites, 78, said he plans to retire in 18 months.
“I will remain the senior managing partner of the LLC for the foreseeable future and the continuing services of GSE should be seamless,” he wrote in a letter announcing the merger with Providence. “Only the firm ownership will change. It is believed that in the future this change will allow our firm to grow and expand our services.”
“Arthur’s been practicing for a long time,” Major said. “He has no professional engineers who are second in command. We’re assisting him with his transition into retirement. He has great guys.”
“He’s got a great thing going,” Major said. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We have special engineering capabilities to help you grow out of the Terrebonne area.”
“From the Providence perspective, we will expand operations,” he said.
Formerly called De Fraites Associates, De Fraites’ father founded GSE in New Orleans in 1944 as a one-man firm but moved to Houma to be closer to clients. De Fraites eventually was reestablished in the New Orleans area.
In 1972, the name of the firm was changed to Gulf South Engineers and, again, in 1999 to GSE Associates.
Engineering firm GSE Associates, whose headquarters in East Houma is shown here, has merged with Providence Holding Company, owner of Providence Engineering and Environmental Group in Baton Rouge. * Photo by MIKE BROSSETTE
