Heritage Holdings has acquired Airside Technology Corporation, a commercial and industrial HVAC contractor based in East Syracuse, New York, the companies announced July 9. The Heritage Holdings Airside acquisition adds another mechanical services provider to the Boston-based private equity firm's industrial services portfolio, which already includes an HVAC platform operating under four distinct brands. Denver-based SDR Ventures served as exclusive sell-side financial advisor to Airside on the deal. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Heritage Holdings Airside Acquisition: A Four-Decade Union HVAC Contractor
Founded in 1984, Airside has built a four-decade presence serving commercial, industrial, institutional and municipal customers throughout Central New York. The company provides a full range of HVAC services, including controls, pipe fitting and sheet metal fabrication, supported by an automated in-house fabrication facility capable of rapid production of rectangular ductwork and precision sheet metal fittings for new construction, replacement and repair projects. Airside employs a union workforce and has built a reputation as a preferred contractor for general contractors, institutional clients and commercial building owners across the Syracuse market.
"Our people come first and the bottom line comes second. That's how we've always run this company, and it's why our customers stick with us and our employees don't leave," said Steve Perry, president of Airside. "I wanted a buyer who understood that, and Heritage Holdings does."
Heritage Holdings Airside Acquisition Reflects Lower Middle-Market Strategy
Heritage Holdings, based in Boston, focuses on lower middle-market investments in founder- and family-owned businesses across business services, industrial services, healthcare services, and technology and telecommunications. Since its founding in 2015, the firm has completed more than 50 acquisitions and recently closed its inaugural institutional investment fund with approximately $220 million in committed capital. The Heritage Holdings Airside acquisition advances the firm's stated strategy of investing in founder-led service businesses with strong regional market positions, adding Airside's experienced workforce, long-standing customer relationships and fabrication capabilities to Heritage's existing HVAC platform.
For Airside, the transaction provides access to additional financial and operational resources while the company works to preserve the foundation it has built over four decades, including long employee tenure and a customer-focused operating model that has supported repeat business across a range of commercial and industrial projects.
SDR Ventures advised Airside throughout the sale process. "It has been a privilege to help connect Steve and the Airside team with Heritage Holdings," said Bob Foresman, senior advisor at SDR Ventures. "Steve built something truly remarkable over four decades that any buyer would be fortunate to inherit. Heritage Holdings is exactly the right partner to build on that foundation."
Mike Grande, managing director at SDR Ventures, said Airside's workforce and operational capabilities made it a distinctive business within the mechanical contracting sector. "Steve has spent multiple decades building a capable workforce, an in-house fabrication shop, and a culture of loyalty that keeps people around for 20-plus years, and that kind of foundation is a true rarity in this industry," Grande said. "I'm proud that we were able to help Steve find the right partner to carry that legacy forward."
SDR Ventures, based in Denver, has built a practice advising lower-to-middle-market business owners across North America on sell-side transactions, buy-side representation, exit planning and capital raising. The firm was named to Axial's 2026 Advisor 100 list earlier this year, a recognition tied to its activity across a range of industrial and service-sector deals, including the Airside transaction.
The deal comes as HVAC contractors nationally report continued difficulty recruiting licensed sheet metal workers, pipefitters and controls technicians, a dynamic that has made businesses with established union workforces and long employee tenure, such as Airside's, attractive acquisition targets for platforms seeking immediate access to skilled labor rather than building crews from scratch. Heritage Holdings has built its HVAC platform through a series of acquisitions of regional mechanical contractors, a strategy the firm has also pursued in adjacent industrial and business-services sectors. The firm's inaugural institutional fund, closed with approximately $220 million in committed capital, is expected to support continued acquisitions of similarly sized, founder-led businesses across its target industries.
The deal adds to a broader pattern of consolidation across the HVAC and industrial services sector, in which private equity firms have targeted established regional contractors that bring specialized technical capabilities, long-standing customer bases and room to grow through further operational investment and complementary acquisitions.
