DJC.COM -- Construction and Equipment Forecast 2004 -- Surveys

Lease Crutcher Lewis

Specialty: Pre-construction services and construction of various commercial, biotech, health care and educational facilities
Management: Bill Lewis, president and CEO; Mark Garland, operations manager; and Philo Hall, CFO
Year founded: 1886; moved to Seattle in 1939
Headquarters: Seattle
2003 revenues: $261 million
Projected 2004 revenues: $280 million
Largest project in 2003: GC/CM for the new Bellevue City Hall, with a project budget of $102.4 million

Two words would sum up Lease Crutcher Lewis for the last year: lucky and smart.

“We have stayed consistently busy throughout the recession,” said Theodore Sive, director of marketing for Lewis. He said a combination of diverse projects and quality clients has helped the firm even out the ups and downs of the market. “We’ve been really fortunate.”

Diversity has been a key factor in their success, Sive said. Areas such as biotech, health care and education all have different cycles, he said, and those cycles typically don’t run together.

Biotech remains strong, he said. “There’s a lot of health in local biotech,” Sive said. “The construction market is going to be tied to biotech firms’ access to capital.”

Sive said they are finishing up the 307 Westlake Building, a five-story Vulcan/Harbor Properties project on South Lake Union with space for the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute and Children’s Hospital research.

Sive said there is “still a good, strong amount of public sector work,” mostly in general contractor/construction manager jobs.

Lewis is working as the general contractor and construction manager for the city of Bellevue as it converts the former Qwest Building at 450 110th Ave. N.E. into a new City Hall campus. The total project cost is estimated at around $102.4 million, and completion is scheduled for 2006.

In education, Sive said the firm is GC/CM for expansion and renovation of Bothell High School, which will start construction later this year.

“There’s going to be a continuing need for work at the higher education level, (but) probably not as much of a market for K-12 as we’ve seen in past years,” Sive said.

There’s also work to be had in private school construction. “We have two projects we’re working on now, both in preconstruction,” Sive said. Lewis is working with Northwest School in Seattle and Forest Ridge in Bellevue on remodel, expansion and new construction.

Healthcare continues to be a busy area for Lewis, both in small projects and in some significant, large-scale projects starting soon, Sive said.

Locally, Sive said he sees the economy picking up. “From what I read and hear, I think there are some companies that are starting growth cycles,” he said, though he didn’t want to make any predictions.

“There’s good evidence the local economy is a bit stronger,” though maybe not as strong as a few years ago. “I don’t see the traditional commercial office market rebounding anything close to the levels of ‘98 and ‘99.”