Foushee

Specialties: Full-service commercial construction firm providing office, retail, industrial and lab and health care projects

Management: Owners Loch Anderson, Jeff Foushee, Eric Jones, Lisa Koch, Britt Slone and Mark Stillwell

Year founded: 1977

Headquarters: Bellevue

2007 revenues: $85 million

Projected 2008 revenues: About $85 million

Current projects: TTenant improvements for Google in Seattle and Kirkland; building 110,000-square-foot Redmond East Corporate Center; building 100,000-square-foot Fremont Lake View business complex; tenant improvements for Pokemon in Bellevue; building a new 300,000-plus-square-foot dealership for BMW of Seattle

Photo by ProImage Photography, Ed Sozinho Foushee was the general contractor on the Willow Creek Corporate Center in Redmond that was named Redevelopment of the Year in November by the Puget Sound Chapter of NAIOP. Weber+Thompson was architect.

Many construction companies have grown fast in recent years, and Britt Slone said Foushee has resisted that.

Slone, one of six owners of the company, said too much growth can make you lose touch with your repeat clients and not have the time or ability to continue to do projects when they need them.

"Where I see the industry going is there is a huge amount of emphasis on growing the company," Slone said. "We provide a very, very high level of service. The bigger you get, the more difficult it is (to do that)."

More renovations

Slone said clients are increasingly looking at renovating older buildings rather than razing them and starting again. He said that is largely due to the growing interest in more sustainable building.

Slone

"People are really looking hard at taking older buildings that maybe a couple years ago they may not have taken capital dollars and invested in them," Slone said. "The tremendous movement towards sustainable buildings and the momentum that has gained is truly impressive and it's across the board, which is even more impressive."

More costly development

Slone said that all of the real estate investment in the Pacific Northwest has resulted in an increase in the costs of development.

"We've become the darling of real estate investors and because of these purchases and sales of our commercial properties, they tend to ratchet up the costs," Slone said. "It's like the whole tide has risen. The projects cost more money because of the higher quality and the costs."

Inflation of material costs and a shortage of skilled labor remain big concerns for the industry, Slone said.

"Inflation in materials is extremely difficult for us to manage and for our clients," Slone said. "The inflation we've experienced in the past couple of years, we've never seen anything like it in our careers, in our lifetimes, and when is it going to stop?"

Strong local market

The Northwest market is still very strong, Slone said, and he attributes that in part to the continuing growth of start-up companies and spin-off companies here. But though he is "cautiously optimistic" about the local market, he said national economic issues will not bypass the Northwest entirely.

"You cannot ignore what is going on, on a national basis," Slone said. "Eventually it's going to have an effect on us in some way, shape or form."