Published January 2003

Wilcox celebrates 40 years of service, growth

Photo courtesy of Wilcox Construction Inc. Wilcox Construction Inc. completed Starbucks’ flagship store in Westlake Center in November 2001. The project included gutting out an existing coffee shop and providing an entirely new building around the existing structure.

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

In its first 40 years of business, Wilcox Construction Inc. has built a strong foundation for success.

Along with a portfolio of numerous public facilities and commercial structures, the Edmonds-based company has a client list that includes Starbucks, Krispy Kreme and Gene Juarez, and a reputation for doing quality work on time and within budget.

At the base of all that success has been a commitment to customers, company leaders say.

“If you say you’re going to do something, you make sure it happens. Pay your bills. Treat people honestly,” said Bob Wilcox, president of the company he runs along with partner Jim Lessard.

In the end, that philosophy has turned prospective clients into repeat customers. Like Starbucks Coffee Co., which began working with Wilcox Construction in the early 1990s, when the coffee chain had about 100 outlets.

At the time, Wilcox Construction was doing work for Top Foods, and Starbucks wanted to get into the Top Foods store in Olympia, Wilcox said.

“Starbucks was going to use their (own) contractor, and Top Foods said, ‘No, if you’re working in our store, you’re using our contractor,’ and that’s how the relationship began,” he said.

Since then, Wilcox Construction has built more than 400 Starbucks cafes up and down the West Coast. The coffee giant also sends Wilcox Construction staff around the globe to train contractors working on their new international outlets.

“We’ve been to Kuwait, Israel, the Philippines and Hong Kong, to name a few,” said Wilcox, noting that his company is licensed in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Colorado, California, Arizona, Alaska, Hawaii, and Alberta and British Columbia, Canada.

But the company didn’t always have such a geographic reach.

Back in January 1963, Wilcox’s father, Al, began as a homebuilder before switching to the public sector, Bob Wilcox said. In the years that followed, the company built a number of schools, jails and other municipal projects, including the Whatcom County Public Safety Building and Port Townsend High School.

In the mid-1980s, Al retired, and Bob Wilcox and Lessard, who had already purchased a minority interest in the business, acquired the remainder of the stock.

With the change in ownership also came a change in focus from the public to the private sector, a change that proved beneficial to Wilcox Construction, whose client list grew to include Pierre Enterprises, Pallino Pastaria, Furla, Jamba Juice, Qdoba, Gateway Country, various auto dealerships and medical facilities.

Photo courtesy of Wilcox Construction Inc. In 1999, Wilcox Construction built a 4,700-square-foot medical center with surgical facilities for Sound Urology ASC of Edmonds.

Wilcox attributes the varied and growing clientele to his company’s longstanding reputation for quality work.

“When Krispy Kreme came to town, they came to us because of our reputation,” said Wilcox, whose company has built stores in Spokane, Issaquah and Burlington for the doughnut giant.

Wilcox Construction’s work and reputation have served it well through 40 years of economic ups and downs, Wilcox said.

“You try to maintain your service and keep your clients happy so that they don’t go someplace else, and remain competitive,” he said.

Back to the top/January 2003 Main Menu