PCL Construction Services “had a really good year” in 2001, Business Development Director Rollie Walker said, despite apparently hitting a few bumps along the way.

The firm increased revenue despite the overall weak commercial office market and problems with the $360 million Lincoln Square project in downtown Bellevue. It was supposed to be PCL’s biggest project in 2001.

After completing the foundation for the parking garage, PCL walked off the Lincoln Square job in April last year. Subsequently, another contractor, San Francisco-based Swinerton, also quit the mega-project. It includes a three-level retail base above five levels of parking, a 42-story hotel and condominium tower, and a 26-story office tower. Atlanta-based Lend Lease Real Estate Investments is the majority owner.

Walker said, “It was a simple matter of being unable to reach agreement on the price. We were just far enough off that we never could meet eye to eye.” He emphasized that PCL “left on good terms with the owner” and was fully paid for its work.

PCL was founded almost 100 years ago in Alberta, Canada, where it is one of the largest construction firms in terms of revenue. About 55 percent of its work is in Canada, with the United States accounting for about 45 percent. Its U.S. headquarters is in Denver, with local operations based in Bellevue.

“PCL is a blue-collar, heavy, urban builder that specializes in design-build,” Walker said. He said the company is 100 percent employee-owned.

Design-build is probably 60 percent of the firm’s revenue, Walker said. “It carried us through pretty well in 2001.”

Walker said PCL wrapped up most of the major work for the 40-story IDX Tower in Seattle, developed by Hines Corp. Located at Fourth and Madison, the office building is on track for completion this October.

Among other major projects, PCL also completed the 112th @12th project in Bellevue, an 800,000-square-foot office campus, also developed by Hines.

Other highlights last year, he said, were completion of the Ellington, a condo tower in Belltown developed by Intracorp, and winning a design-build competition with LMN Architects for the Everett Special Events Center, a hockey arena complex.

A vast majority of PCL’s local work is in the private sector, though it did build the new air traffic control tower at Sea-Tac Airport last year.

To cope with a softening economy, the firm didn’t shift gears much, choosing to narrow its focus instead, he said. “We focused on design-build, FAA (airport projects) and the retirement industry.” PCL is working on a 7-acre retirement community in Hawaii and intends to pursue similar projects elsewhere in the country, he said.

Last year, said Walker, “There were a lot of things that were going to start but stayed on the sidelines, and they’re just now beginning to wake up. We will have a better year in 2002.”