Hoffman Construction

Specialty: Commercial, institutional, industrial and urban in-fill residential construction in the Northwest

Management: Tom Peterson, general manager; Lyle Martin, vice president of operations; Bart Eberwein, vice president of client relations

Founded: 1922

Headquarters: Portland and Seattle

2008 revenues: $1.2 billion

Projected 2009 revenues: About $800 million-$900 million

Current projects: University of Washington molecular engineering building; Olympia City Hall; Bellevue Towers

Rendering by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca The 77,000-square-foot, $45 million molecular engineering building at the University of Washington is scheduled to start construction in July and is targeting LEED silver or higher.

Bart Eberwein, vice president of client relations for Hoffman Construction, said he is concerned about the impact the construction downturn will have on the young people the industry worked hard to attract.

"Now we're going to be looking at a period where full employment is endangered, so a lot of these people are going to feel like, wow, they got into our industry, and now our industry is not providing a paycheck," Eberwein said.

He said he is also concerned about the impact the continuing lack of liquidity of the financial market will have on clients. He said many good Seattle businesses are now faced with having to lay people off and put expansion plans on hold.

"Some of our clients have economically viable projects ... but they can't borrow money," Eberwein said. "That's causing many of our projects to go dead in the water."

Green growth

Eberwein said green building is still a real growth area for the industry and Hoffman is positioning to remain competitive in that area. About 70 staff members are now LEED-accredited professionals.

"We see a lot of the stimulus money being focused on energy efficiency and that will translate into more construction jobs," he said.

He said he is relieved to be working in the Seattle area, where there are still new projects coming down the pike, like research facilities for the University of Washington, other local college projects, and work on local military bases and community hospitals.

"Doing business in Seattle certainly isn't buffered from the bad stuff going on, but it's healthier than many (other areas)," he said. "There are projects to chase, and some of my brethren in other cities, they don't even have anything to chase."

Lab growth

Eberwein said research and lab projects will also likely be a growth area.

"We're seeing that the present administration is going to be really backing the scientific industries and I think we're going to be building a lot of labs," he said.

He said he thinks the company's expertise in intense mechanical and electrical environments will transfer well into research and lab projects because of those buildings' tight design constraints and clean environments.

Hospital growth

Eberwein expects more demand for community hospitals, especially in rural communities in Central and Eastern Washington. Hoffman is working on a new hospital in Chelan. He said many area hospitals will also be remodeling to attract aging baby boomers, who demand a higher level of care and services than past patients.

There will also be continuing work in higher education, as local colleges remodel and build new buildings to compete for students. Hoffman is working on a classroom building for Cascadia Community College and recently did dorm projects at Lewis and Clark College and Reed College.

He said water and wastewater work are still going strong, too.

Partnership growth

There is also opportunity in public-private partnerships. Eberwein said cities and agencies are going to continue to want to join forces with developers as they did on the Marysville City Hall and Tacoma's Center for Urban Waters.

"I think just generally speaking there is a viewpoint that we need to be in less protected silos and all come together and make these projects happen," he said.

He said thinking longer term, urban residential work will return and grow on the West Coast, with the coast, especially Seattle and Portland, continuing to attract creative people and entrepreneurs.

"When that plane rights itself and starts flying again, I think Seattle, Olympia, Portland, Bellingham are going to do well," he said.