Aecon Buildings

Specialties: Entertainment/hospitality, mixed-use
Management: George Kramer, president
Year founded: 1985 (as Frontier Construction)
Headquarters: Lynnwood (U.S. division)
2006 revenues: N/A
Projected 2007 revenues: N/A
Current projects: $15 million Quintessa apartment, Seattle; $9 million expansion of the Wild Horse Casino Resort, Pendleton, Ore.; $1 million expansion of the Clearwater Casino Resort, Agate Pass

Photo courtesy of Aecon Buildings [enlarge]

Aecon Buildings is constructing a $1 million expansion to the Suquamish Tribe’s Clearwater Casino Resort at Agate Pass.

With the tightening of the labor pool stemming from the Northwest’s construction boom, it’s been a challenge to recruit top-quality people, said Ann Simpson, a long-time Aecon marketing consultant.

“We’re doing internal training and offering a very good HR benefit package to try and entice people,” said Simpson.

The company also tries to keep its subs happy.

“Because we do pay our subcontractors regularly, we usually have less trouble attracting them,” said Will Martin, the company’s director of sales.

Tough bidding

In such a tight construction market, Simpson predicts that Sound Transit’s recent bid experience will become more and more common.

Sound Transit received only one bid for the Airport Link light-rail station project. The bid was $95 million — almost twice the engineer’s estimate.

“That sort of impact will be felt in the private as well as the public sector moving forward,” Simpson said.

Over half of Aecon’s business is repeat customers or referrals, which gives the company a bit of a cushion.

“We live and die by repeat customers,” said Martin. “When we have a repeat customer who asks us to do a project, we’ll do what we can to do it for the budget they have.

“If that means not taking on work for somebody else than so be it,” Martin said.

Tribal construction

Aecon has several American Indian tribes in its client base. There’s a lot to learn when working with tribes because they have their own permitting system, their own environmental processes and their own court system.

The company has worked successfully with tribes for almost two decades, Simpson said.

Its reputation was established with its first project: a temporary casino for the Suquamish Tribe, a rush job. The tribe wanted the casino in time for New Year’s Eve, but construction couldn’t start until Thanksgiving.

“Aecon committed to being able to clear the land and have the casino open in 39 days,” Simpson said.