Design Build Solutions

What Design Build Solutions does

Design Build Solutions, legally ACL Design Build Solutions Limited, is a Canadian design-build construction contractor founded in 2000 and headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The company specializes in senior living facilities — nursing homes, retirement residences, assisted living, memory care, lifestyle apartments, and transitional health centers — and operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of ACL Group of Companies. Across its 25-year history, DBS has delivered more than 70 nursing home builds and renovations across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Ontario.

The company's core offering bundles design, construction, and furnishing under a single point of contact, eliminating coordination friction between separately contracted designers and builders. Its signature design element is the proprietary 'Main Street' indoor streetscape concept — a small-town-style atrium with a café, theatre, salon, town hall, chapel, and storefronts — that has become a default design feature in new nursing home builds across Atlantic Canada. DBS also delivers culturally specific variants such as the Indigenous-designed Kiknu long-term care home in Eskasoni and the Acadian Heritage-focused Faubourg du Mascaret at the Université de Moncton, demonstrating capability to embed cultural and linguistic requirements into standard senior living templates. Large active builds include the 365-suite Parkland Ancaster, the 25-storey Parkland at the Common in Halifax, the 620,000+ sq ft Bloomsbury master-planned community, and Atlantic Canada's first stand-alone transitional care center at West Bedford.

DBS generates revenue through fixed-price design-build contracts negotiated directly with enterprise clients — primarily private senior living operators such as Shannex Inc., provincial government health-care authorities (notably the Province of Nova Scotia's 50+ nursing home redevelopment plan through 2032), Indigenous communities, and religious/congregational organizations. Pricing is not publicly disclosed and is negotiated per project. The company has no public listing, no external institutional investors, and no external funding rounds; it is privately financed within ACL Group of Companies. The go-to-market motion is enterprise field sales, relationship-driven, project-based, and concentrated in Atlantic Canada with growing Ontario exposure, supported by a Trade Partner program that recruits construction subcontractors with multi-year work commitments.

Name

Design Build Solutions

Legal name

ACL Design Build Solutions Limited

Website

https://designbuildsolutions.ca

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Design Build Solutions is a Canadian design-build contractor founded in 2000 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, specializing in nursing homes, retirement residences, assisted living, and memory care facilities for senior living operators, provincial governments, and Indigenous communities across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Ontario.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Senior Living Construction Services

NAICS

Architectural Services (541310)

SIC

General Bldg Contractors - Residential Bldgs (1520)

akta.pro primary industry

Senior Living & Assisted Living Facility Construction (IMAFACAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Residential Design-Build & Renovation-Integrated Builders (IMAFABAE), Design-Build / EPC General Contracting (IMAFAAAD), Independent Living Community Development & Construction (Senior Housing Developers) (HLADAAAH), Standalone Memory Care Communities (Purpose-Built) (HLADACAA)

Keywords

• Design-build construction
• Senior living facilities
• Nursing home construction
• Long-term care development
• Retirement residence construction

Headquarters

HQ city

Halifax

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Design-Build Construction Services: Design Build Solutions generates revenue as a design-build contractor for senior living projects. Revenue is earned through fixed-price contracts for the design, construction, and furnishing of nursing homes, retirement residences, and related healthcare facilities. Projects span long-term care homes, assisted living, memory care, lifestyle apartments, and transitional health facilities. The company delivers projects on time and on budget for enterprise clients including Shannex Inc. and provincial government bodies.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

ACL Design Build Solutions Limited operates as a design-build construction contractor providing end-to-end design, construction, and furnishing services for senior living communities. The company specializes in nursing homes, retirement residences, assisted living, memory care, lifestyle apartments, and transitional health facilities. It serves as a single point of contact for enterprise clients across the entire project lifecycle, from concept through turn-key delivery.

Product overview

Design Build Solutions operates as a construction services company offering end-to-end design and build services for senior living communities across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Ontario. Their portfolio encompasses multiple product types including nursing homes (long term care), retirement living (lifestyle apartments, all-inclusive lifestyle), assisted living, memory care, and transitional health facilities. The company's signature design feature is the 'Main Street Concept' — an indoor streetscape that creates small-town atmosphere with café, theatre, salon, and gathering spaces. Projects range from individual buildings (144-bed nursing homes like Moody Hall and Opal Ridge Hall) to large campus-style developments (Parkland Fredericton with 351 suites, Parkland at the Lakes with 370 suites). The company also delivered culturally significant projects like Kiknu in Eskasoni and French-language Faubourg du Mascaret. Notable projects include Parkland Ancaster (their largest Ontario project with 365 suites), Parkland at the Common (25-storey Halifax development), and Bloomsbury (master-planned community spanning 620,000+ sq ft).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Design-Build Construction Services for Senior Living Communities End-to-end design, construction, and furnishing services for senior living communities, delivered as a turn-key single-point-of-contact engagement for senior living operators, government health authorities, and Indigenous communities.
• Nursing Home Design and Construction Design and construction of licensed nursing homes with neighbourhood-based layouts, private rooms and washrooms, and 12-16 resident households per neighbourhood.
• Retirement Living Community Construction Construction of lifestyle apartments and all-inclusive retirement residences for active seniors, featuring amenities such as dining venues, fitness centres, spas, and recreational facilities.
• Assisted Living and Enriched Care Residences Design and construction of assisted living and enriched care residences providing supportive lifestyle options for seniors requiring additional daily living assistance.
• Memory Care Facility Construction

Quantifiable outcome

• 70+ nursing home and retirement living projects delivered
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Shannex Inc.coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerShannex Inc. is Design Build Solutions' primary operating client. DBS serves as the exclusive design-build contractor for Shannex's nursing home and retirement living projects across Atlantic Canada. This includes multiple 144-bed nursing homes (Moody Hall, Opal Ridge Hall), the Station Yards campus in Moncton with three 60-bed nursing homes (Gordon Hall, Ocean Hall, Garraway Hall), and numerous other Parkland-branded senior living communities. DBS delivers turn-key projects to Shannex on time and on budget. Jason Shannon, President of Shannex, has provided a testimonial praising DBS's quality work, professionalism, and community understanding.
• Eskasoni First Nation CommunitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDesign Build Solutions partnered with the Eskasoni community in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia for the delivery of Kiknu, a 48-bed culturally representative long-term care home. DBS worked collaboratively with Eskasoni on each design element to ensure the home was representative of First Nations culture while adhering to provincial design standards. The home operates in both Mi'kmaq and English and is the first of its kind in Nova Scotia.
• Sisters of Saint MarthaminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerDesign Build Solutions worked closely with the Sisters of Saint Martha on the Parkland Antigonish project, developing a new retirement living and long-term care home for the Congregation and the broader community. The project incorporated heritage elements including stained-glass windows from the Sisters' former Bethany Motherhouse into the new development.
• Sisters of CharityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerDesign Build Solutions partnered with the Sisters of Charity on the Caritas Residence project in Halifax, Nova Scotia, delivering a five-storey retirement residence offering independent retirement living, assisted living, and licensed long-term care.
• Université de MonctonminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerACL Design Build Solutions Limited worked with the Université de Moncton and gerontology experts to design and build an innovative collaborative learning environment for health services students studying aging and related disciplines. The facility includes classroom spaces and a living lab providing experiential learning opportunities, built as part of the Faubourg du Mascaret retirement community development.
• ACL Group of Companies (Parent)coreOthersACL Design Build Solutions Limited is a subsidiary of ACL Group of Companies, a wholly owned and privately held organization with multiple operating companies in diversified sectors including transportation, healthcare, information technology, and real estate. The parent company's diversified portfolio provides organizational stability and shared services infrastructure.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Graham Construction: Western Canada-headquartered contractor with national design-build operations in institutional and healthcare buildings. Comparable in design-build delivery for senior living projects but with materially larger scale and broader Canadian footprint than DBS.
• Stuart Olson (now part of Bird Construction): Previously a standalone Canadian contractor with healthcare and institutional portfolios, now integrated into Bird Construction. Relevant as a historical peer operating in the same institutional design-build space as DBS.
• PCL Construction: Major Canadian general contractor and design-builder with established healthcare and institutional portfolios. Like DBS, PCL delivers turn-key senior living and healthcare construction, but operates nationally and internationally with significantly greater scale and procurement leverage.
• EllisDon Corporation: One of Canada's largest design-build and construction services firms with national reach across institutional, commercial, and senior living projects. Comparable to DBS in delivering integrated design-build for healthcare and senior living facilities but at vastly larger scale and broader geographic footprint.
• Pomerleau: Canadian construction leader with integrated design-build capabilities across institutional, commercial, and healthcare sectors. Comparable in design-build delivery model and senior/healthcare project experience, though with broader geographic reach and larger project scale than DBS.
• Bird Construction: Canadian general contractor with institutional and healthcare construction experience including senior living facilities. Like DBS, Bird delivers integrated design-build projects but at a much larger scale and broader national geographic footprint.

Direct peers

• Maple Reinders: Canadian design-build contractor with niche specialization in complex institutional and commercial buildings, including senior living. Most directly comparable to DBS in design-build delivery model, mid-size scale, and focus on specialized institutional projects.
• Aquicon Construction: Ontario-based design-build contractor with institutional and senior living project experience. Closely comparable to DBS in design-build delivery approach, mid-market scale, and senior living/healthcare specialization, with overlap in Ontario geography.

Regional players

• Walsh Construction: Established North American design-build contractor with healthcare and senior living institutional experience. Comparable in integrated design-build model and senior living project delivery, but with primarily U.S. geographic exposure rather than Canadian Atlantic markets.

Others

• Shannex Inc. DBS's largest client and Atlantic Canada's largest senior living operator; not a competitor but a strategic customer and partner. Relevant as the integrated operator-builder counterpart whose capital deployment decisions drive DBS's pipeline.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/acl-design-build-solutions

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Design Build Solutions