JGA to merge with McCann Worldgroup’s ChaseDesign

JGA is joining forces with ChaseDesign.

Both firms will continue to operate separately. JGA chairman Ken Nisch will remain in his role and report to Joe Lampertius, president of ChaseDesign. He will also sit on the leadership team of ChaseDesign.  The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Based in Southfield, Mich., JGA is an environmental design focused on building innovative retail and branded locations within a “shopping as an emotional exercise” framework. ChaseDesign takes a more scientific approach which involves the study of how retailers best merchandise products at the shelf, category and department levels. The firm is part of McCann Worldgroup, a marketing services organization owned by The Interpublic Group of Companies.

“We’re combining two teams that address design opportunities in a very different but complimentarily way — one from the bottom up and the other from top down ‚ to offer the first full end-to-end environmental design service,” said Lampertius. “Ken Nisch and the JGA team have worked on some of the most impressive retail projects of the past several decades, including Shinola, World of Hershey’s Las Vegas, Reliance Group in India, El Palacio De Hierro in Mexico, Calares, DXL, Signet and Paradies Group.”

JGA was founded in 1971 as Jon Greenberg & Associates, a retail architecture firm in the metro Detroit area.  Nisch, who joined JGA more than 35 years ago, expanded the agency by building branded retail environments all over the world.

“For JGA, this union provides the perfect partner, complementing our branded environments practice within our core retail expertise while providing us resources and expertise across the broader world of retail, covering research, product packaging, digital and point of purchase,” said Nisch. “It also helps us extend our portfolio to include innovation centers, institutional, corporate settings and more.”