September 9, 2016

Adolfson & Peterson closing Tacoma office

When Adolfson & Peterson Construction bought Tacoma's Rushforth Construction in 2009, managers at Rushforth were optimistic that being part of a larger company would allow them to handle much larger projects.

“We're very pleased with the acquisition and the terms of the acquisition,” said Randy Rushforth in 2009, then chairman of the firm. “We're very impressed with Adolfson & Peterson as a partner going forward. They're are a very proactive, employee-oriented, community-oriented company, which is very similar to the way we operate now.”

But now the Minneapolis-based A&P is closing the Tacoma office and will finish up a few projects by year end.

A person answering the corporate office phone for A&P in Minneapolis yesterday said no one there could comment right away.

Bill Clinton, director of preconstruction and estimating at A&P's Tacoma office, answered the phone yesterday at that office but would not comment.

Clinton did forward to the DJC an undated announcement from A&P CEO Rick Whitney that said: “Rushforth Construction Co. Inc. (dba AP Pacific Northwest) has ceased accepting new work in the region. AP has several projects that are in various stages of completion and we will fulfill those commitments to our valued clients.”

The news comes as a surprise in the local construction industry. The company polled industry leaders in April about its brand perception, but the results of that survey were not available.

The company was seeking a senior project manager in April through LinkedIn, and hired Kris Beason earlier this year to run the Tacoma office. It also recently brought on Eberlin Schwinn as project executive and Jay Langston as senior project manager.

An email sent to Beason at A&P on Wednesday was returned, saying that she no longer works there. Beason couldn't be reached on her cell phone.

Earlier this year, the DJC quizzed Beason for a survey about the company.

“Historically, AP Construction has been thought of as a Pierce County contractor but right now 95 percent of our work is in King County,” she said in May. “We have strong relationships with owners, design teams and other project partners based in the South Sound. And, we want to continue being their ‘go-to' contractor, but we can't ignore demand for construction that is happening throughout King County.”

One industry source who didn't want to be named said the Tacoma office starting pursuing work in California a few years ago rather than focusing on local jobs, and that cost a lot of money while netting no major projects. Another money draw, according to the source, was a decision to move the local office down the block and spend about $500,000 for tenant improvements.

The source said the local office has about a half-dozen people working on tenant improvement projects that are expected to finish by year end.

Rushforth Construction was founded in 1951 by Bill Rushforth, Randy's father. Last year, it finished the $35 million Gordon Family YMCA in Sumner, the six-building Portside Industrial Center in Fife, and The Luke, a 208-unit apartment in Redmond.

A&P nationally had $782 million in revenues for 2015 and earlier this year projected $810 million for 2016. Local numbers were not available.

A story about the closure of the Tacoma office appeared in the Puget Sound Business Journal.