Published January 2004

Kirtley-Cole marks 2003 with 30th anniversary, move

Snohomish County Business Journal/ JOHN WOLCOTT Ray Kirtley, president of Kirtley-Cole Associates Inc., has moved the company to new offices near the Everett Mall. The new lobby includes a wall of project photos, including this one of Millstone Coffee’s main lobby.

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

When Ray Kirtley and Gordon Cole founded Kirtley-Cole Associates Inc. 30 years ago, they had lofty ideals in mind, to be respected in their community, to be trusted by their clients and to be known as one of the top construction firms in the Northwest.

Today, the firm has accomplished those goals, having earned a reputation for quality work on projects from Oregon to Canada, particularly in the medical field. Cole left the company in 2001, but the firm retains the partners’ original name.

Starting out in Everett in 1973, the partners moved to a 3,000-square-foot residential home in Snohomish in 1975, a place so huge they thought they’d never fill it up. Nearly three decades later, they’d filled the house, the basement and two portable trailers on the property and were still crowded as staff and projects grew.

Their new facility west of the Everett Mall, at 1010 SE Everett Mall Way, in Suite 102, has 13,000 square feet of space, ample room for more growth for the firm, Kirtley said. The business’ new phone number is 425-609-0400. Kirtley bought the 50,000-square-foot building, then joined a variety of tenants that includes Wells Fargo bank.

“We do a wide variety of projects — from commercial to schools and shopping centers — but we’ve developed a niche in the medical field, a specialized area that now many smaller firms are doing. Mostly it’s the mega-companies in King County, but we find a lot of medical clients prefer working with a local company headquartered in the area that understands their needs,” said Kirtley, an Everett High School graduate whose firm later renovated the high school near downtown Everett.

The firm has built Snohomish Business Park, the new Buffalo Shopping Center on 132nd Street SE, east of Murphy’s Corner, several buildings for The Everett Clinic and Providence Hospital, the new Stevens Pavilion medical center on the campus of Stevens Hospital in Edmonds, school construction, office buildings, commercial offices and a variety of other projects.

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