Brightstar Capital Partners (Brightstar), a middle-market private equity firm focused on control-oriented investments in business services, industrials, technology, media & telecom and financial services companies, has acquired Madison, Wisconsin-based Erdman, an architecture and engineering firm specializing in healthcare and senior living facilities. Erdman joins KZF Design as part of Brightstar’s architecture and design platform, which the firm established with its acquisition of KZF Design in 2025.
Founded in 1951, Erdman has spent more than seven decades designing hospitals, medical office buildings and senior living communities for clients across the country, with active licenses in more than 45 states. The firm has also developed ZeroIn, a proprietary healthcare analytics platform that supports data-driven market and facility planning.
“The 80-and-over population is projected to roughly double over the next two decades, driving sustained demand for exactly the types of facilities Erdman designs,” said Dan Faust, CEO of Brightstar’s architecture and design platform. “We believe Erdman is well-positioned to serve that demand, and their team brings the specialized expertise and client relationships we look for in design partners.”
“We have spent decades building relationships with clients who trust us to design spaces that elevate the human experience,” said Rustin Becker, president and CEO of Erdman. “Brightstar understood what makes Erdman work and wanted to invest in it, and that gave us the confidence to move forward together.”
“The architecture and design industry is home to outstanding regional firms, and our goal is to create an integrated platform to help them grow, collaborate, and serve clients in ways that would be difficult to achieve independently,” said Michael Burke, Board Chair of Brightstar’s architecture and design platform and former Chairman and CEO of AECOM. “Erdman brings sector depth, a national footprint and a proprietary analytics capability that we believe strengthens the platform.”
Brightstar’s architecture and design platform partners with regional firms, providing strategic backing, shared capabilities, and a collaborative operating model designed to preserve each firm’s culture while enabling growth.
