United Building Solutions Acquires McCarl's Services Incorporated

What happened

United Building Solutions (UBS), a national commercial HVAC services company, announced on April 23, 2026 that it had acquired McCarl's Services Incorporated, a commercial and industrial HVAC and refrigeration (HVACR) specialist based in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. McCarl's will operate as a division of UBS under the continued leadership of its president, Mike McCarl. PwC served as financial advisor to AE Industrial Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The seller

Foster McCarl Jr. founded McCarl's in 1946, and three generations of the McCarl family have run it since. The company designs, installs, maintains and repairs complex HVACR systems and also offers controls and facility staffing, working from offices in Cranberry Township and Erie. It serves western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and northern West Virginia, for customers in healthcare, manufacturing, energy and commercial real estate.

UBS describes McCarl's as one of the largest service-focused operators in the region, serving commercial and industrial customers in critical end markets where reliability is paramount. Mike McCarl said that "having served the western-Pennsylvania region for three generations, joining UBS' rapidly expanding network will allow us to enhance our capabilities and accelerate growth while maintaining our commitment to technical expertise, superior quality, and outstanding service."

The buyer

UBS provides HVAC, building analytics and building controls services through multiple brands, and reports more than 30 years of experience and more than 2,000 customers served. AE Industrial Partners, a Boca Raton, Florida, private equity firm focused on national security, aerospace and industrial services, invested in the company in January 2025. When the investment was announced that February, UBS operated through three subsidiaries: Lor-Mar, A&B HVAC Services and Unitemp MDI.

McCarl's is UBS's third add-on acquisition since that investment. UBS says the three deals have taken its footprint from three Mid-Atlantic states to 11 markets across the Northeast, Midwest, Southeast and South-Central United States. CEO David Leathers said that "in addition to extending our geographic reach, the acquisition of McCarl's aligns with our broader strategy of providing specialized service solutions that support organizations in critical market sectors."

Bryan McElwee, a partner at AE Industrial, called McCarl's "a service-first operator with deeply embedded customer relationships, specialized technical capabilities, and a strong management team," and said the firm is "excited to give him the resources and infrastructure to accelerate what's already working."

How UBS has handled its add-ons

Each of the three add-ons has kept the acquired company's leadership. Total Comfort Solutions, a North Florida commercial HVAC provider led by president Tom Williams, joined UBS in a deal announced alongside AE Industrial's investment on February 18, 2025, and that release said the senior leadership teams at both companies would remain in place. DFW Mechanical Group, a commercial and industrial mechanical contractor in Wylie, Texas, followed in January 2026, with Brett Thomas staying on as president of the DFW division. McCarl's now follows the same pattern in western Pennsylvania. Owners weighing a similar move can read our guide on selling an HVAC business to private equity.

What this means for HVAC owners

A family firm that has served the tri-state region since 1946 is now one division in an 11-market platform, with the same president in charge and a sponsor that describes what it bought in terms of service work and customer relationships. For commercial and industrial HVACR contractors in the region, that puts a local competitor inside a private equity-backed national platform. For an owner who gets a call from this buyer, the record offers three precedents to ask about directly: how each division has been run since it joined, and what its president's role looks like now.

OffDeal is an advisory firm that helps lower-middle-market business owners sell with confidence. Reach out to learn more about our expertise with HVAC businesses in Pennsylvania.

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Source: AE Industrial Partners - https://www.aeroequity.com/united-building-solutions-acquires-mccarls-services-incorporated/