Our Extended History
Highpoint has a storied past and one worth retelling. We evolved from businesses that had a significant presence in Massachusetts and New England. While we were officially established on January 5th, 2010, the core team had practiced together for over ten years, and the business philosophy draws from roots established as far back as the 1946.
Bradford Saivetz & Associates (aka BS&A) was founded primarily as an engineering and surveying firm located in Braintree, Massachusetts. Its founder, Brad Saivetz, was a licensed Land Surveyor and Landscape Architect who over time expanded the business into a successful engineering, land surveying and architectural firm. Although the firm worked across many market sectors, their specialty was focused on retail, residential, and industrial development projects.
In 2000, BS&A was acquired by Cubellis, Inc. At the time, the civil engineering group was actively engaged in several high-profile projects including Chapman’s Reach at Marina Bay, Assinippi Office Park in Norwell, and Middleboro Industrial Park in Middleboro, MA.
After the Cubellis acquisition, the civil engineering team continued to grow under the leadership of Donald Springhetti, PE a well-known and respected Civil Engineer in the Greater Boston Area. Don was hired directly out of college in the 1970’s and led the group since through his retirement in 2006. In 2000, Michael Fabbiano was hired as a senior project manager providing management expertise to the team, and in 2004, Douglas Hartnett joined Cubellis from Sasaki Associates, establishing himself as senior managing associate of the land development practice group.
From 2006 to 2009, Doug and Mike led the Land Development Practice Group and continued to collectively work on expanding the engineering practice while working on many high-profile projects in the region. Then, through a series of unfortunate events, leading up to and beyond the Great Recession of 2008, Cubellis – a 550 person AE firm, was forced to close its doors on Wednesday 25th, just before noontime, 2009.
With a desire to maintain the core team that worked so well together over the years, and to continue to support their client base with over a dozen active projects, Mike and Doug agreed to join forces, hire Nichole Dunphy (2001 start date) and Jesse Aguilar (2004 start date) and self-fund their new startup firm Highpoint Engineering.
Building on decades of success starting from the early days of Bradford Saivetz & Associates and years of experience with Sasaki, on January 5th, 2010, Douglas Hartnett and Michael Fabbiano, acting as Managing Principals, started Highpoint Engineering Incorporated. Like most successful partnerships, their personalities needed to complement each other, in our case, it could not be any truer. Douglas is technical, relaxed and old-school when it comes to solving problems. Michael is highly organized, over-prepared, and technologically savvy. Both are well rounded individuals in their own right and bring a wealth of experience to every endeavor they are associated with. Throughout the years, they have continued to grow the firm to offer a balanced range of professional services, while expanding their clientele and growing their experienced team.