McGowan Broz

Seven-year-old McGowan Broz Engineers, a mechanical/electrical design firm in Bellevue, continues to work with commercial and industrial developers and municipalities. Projects have included mechanical and electrical design for new and renovated office buildings, tenant improvements, data and call centers for dot-coms, housing, multi-use projects, parks and interpretive centers and libraries. Major efforts have included ongoing projects at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to support expansion and modernization initiatives and development of water-supply related projects to support new and existing community growth. For high-technology manufacturing plants, the firm provides telecom and data center development and prime power plant construction.

The staff size has now reached 22, which represents growth of approximately 25 percent over the same time last year. Revenues have increased at a slightly higher rate than staff growth due to occasional need to use staff at levels in excess of 100 percent. The firm continues to pursue qualified professional and administrative additions.

“We are finding that we are constantly adjusting to meet the changing demands of a very dynamic marketplace — managing ambitious schedules, keeping current with advances in technology and meeting the increasingly high expectations of clients,” said president Ken McGowan. “At the same time, we are responding to new initiatives such as ‘green building’ and the movement toward more design-build projects.”

It is not easy to be clairvoyant, but experience has taught us that the Pacific Northwest economy lags the rest of the nation in terms of ups and downs,” said McGowan.

A great deal of anticipated regional infrastructure has yet to be built in this area, he said, including Sound Transit projects and major improvements at Sea-Tac International Airport. The commercial market is still on an upswing. McGowan sees a continued hot economy and marketplace, but with possible ups and downs hinging on world issues and condition of the financial markets.

He predicted that increasing demands for energy will remake the landscape for power generation and power distribution as computer-driven infrastructure gobbles up power. “We see a great deal of development in the future for peaking power and cogeneration facilities relying on fossil-fuels to supply the grid. The cost of power will certainly increase as deregulation takes hold in concert with increases in demand. New high-demand power users should pay for the lion’s share of the cost for upgraded utility infrastructure. Look for renewed interest into alternative power generation methods such as wind and solar power, and be prepared for strong initiatives relating to conservation and aggressive market-driven pricing of energy during peak demand periods.”