GLY Construction

Specialty: Commercial office, health-care, interiors, special projects

Management: Jim Karambelas, CEO

Founded: 1967

Headquarters: Bellevue

2010 revenues: $197 million

Projected 2011 revenues: $178 million

Current projects: Amazon.com phase five in South Lake Union; renovations to Microsoft Buildings 4 and 121 in Redmond; Virginia Mason Sandpoint Pediatric Clinic in Seattle; Elks on Broadway in Tacoma; Bothell City Hall; Group Health medical office buildings, Puyallup and Burien

For GLY Construction, 2011 has been the hardest fiscal year of the recession. CEO Jim Karambelas said the economy likely won't ramp up until the second half of 2012.

Photo by Soundview Aerial Photography GLY is working on several projects for Amazon.com's South Lake Union campus, including the fourth, pictured, and fifth phases.

The ramp up, he said, should continue into 2013 with the next growth cycle hitting from 2014 to 2016. It's tough to predict considering the last cycle grew and declined so quickly but if the trend continues, there will be shorter growth periods with longer recessions in between, he added.

Karambelas is hoping that's not the case. He'd like the curve to be a little flatter with less volatility for more modest growth. In 2008, GLY's revenues were $530 million compared to around $200 million in 2010 and 2011. Karambelas said he would like to be somewhere around $400 million while maintaining modest growth.

"If (the recession) flattens the curve a little bit and if we don't have to respond in a manner that requires us to ramp up significantly and then scale back significantly, I think that's a very good thing."

More smaller jobs

The company hasn't had layoffs in 18 months and is hiring some new project engineers.

Recently, the biggest difference for GLY has been the mix of work moving to small projects. In 2010 and 2011, it performed or undertook 50 percent more projects than it did in 2009 for about 50 percent less revenue, Karambelas said.

Much of its work mix remains in the commercial and health-care fields.

Health-care has been constant though projects generally have been renovations instead of being built from the ground up. GLY is currently doing jobs for Swedish Medical Center, Virginia Mason Medical Center and Overlake Hospital.

It is in the planning stages of a project to launch Group Health's next generation of medical office buildings. There are two in the pipeline with a potential for another four, but Karambelas said those projects won't have an impact until 2012. Smaller contracts are still coming through the door.

Office market improving

Karambelas is encouraged by movement beginning in the corporate office world. In Seattle and Bellevue's central business districts, vacancies are starting to decrease and high-rise office space is being leased up. He said GLY is starting to see developers acquire land and in a few cases new projects are being planned and the entitlement process started.

"The good news is demand should start," he said. "It's not a tremendous amount of activity but we're definitely starting to see some turn there."

3-D, BIM, IPD

Moving forward, the team is working on a number of areas where it has some resume experience but is not yet an expert. These include public-private partnerships, design-build projects, assisted-living care and bioscience. It is concentrating on relationships with clients that are poised to do well in the recovery, such as Vulcan and Microsoft.

Karambelas is passionate about using three-dimensional tools, and about integrated project delivery or getting involved with a project as early as possible. Using tools like BIM eliminate redundancies, he said, and create a better project. Often there are up to 20 percent labor savings due to these techniques, he said.

"There's tremendous opportunity. I think the industry is definitely heading there."