October 13, 2026
PE Firm Acquires Its Second East Coast Project House
Seventeen months after buying Valley Lighting, Caymus expands into the New York market.
In New York lighting circles, there’s distribution, and then there’s the project house. The first category is large and includes plenty of independents. The second is a short list of shops that never open a counter and spend their days chasing city projects through long bid cycles. Weltmann Lighting is on that short list, and it now has a private equity owner.
Led by co-founders Kevin and Debra Weltmann since 2008, Weltmann Lighting has joined Valley Lighting as part of a platform owned by Caymus Equity, an Atlanta private equity firm. Terms were not disclosed. The Weltmanns will keep running the company.
A Shop Built for Spec Work
Weltmann does not chase the contractor finishing a basement or swapping fixtures in a bagel shop. Its business is quoting projects across the New York metro area, mostly in New York City. That is where the large jobs get written, and where profits tend to be bigger for firms willing to work long bid cycles.
The model runs in the family. Kevin Weltmann’s father was a partner at Shelton Lighting, a project-focused shop in Midtown Manhattan. Kevin himself took a detour through Coopers & Lybrand and earned his CPA before building Weltmann into a niche, yet respected name in local lighting circles.
The Second Piece
Caymus bought Valley Lighting, the Linthicum Heights, Maryland, project house serving Baltimore, Washington and Northern Virginia, in May 2025. Valley already operates alongside Commonwealth Blinds & Shades, which gives the platform a shading business to pair with lighting and controls.
Two project houses in two of the East Coast’s busiest construction markets, bought roughly 17 months apart, start to look like a plan. One reasonable reading is that Caymus is assembling a regional group of job shops it could eventually sell as a package, with room for more bolt-ons along the way. The company has not said so.
The announcement calls the result the largest lighting and controls distributor on the East Coast and claims turnkey capabilities for “nearly half of the country.” Lighting people may want to see the math on both.
The Chelsea Precedent
New York has watched this movie before. Chelsea Lighting, probably the best-known project house in the metro area, was acquired by Chicago-based Kinzie Capital Partners in 2020 with plans to expand nationally. Six years later, Kinzie still owns it, which suggests these businesses can generate the kind of steady returns that keep investors patient.
There is one wrinkle specific to Weltmann. The company has long marketed itself as a certified Women’s Business Enterprise, with certifications from New York State, New York City, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Nassau County. Those programs generally require majority ownership and control by a woman, so it is fair to ask how the certifications fit a private equity structure. Customers bidding public work with diversity goals will want an answer.
What Comes Next
For manufacturers and agents in New York, little may change at first. Same people, same relationships, same quotes. Over time, shared ownership from New York to North Carolina could mean coordinated purchasing and more leverage on multi-market jobs.
The more interesting question is whether Caymus is done shopping. Two project houses make a pattern. A third would make a strategy.
