1. EMAIL PRINT
Rush Construction not just 'keeping busy'
Gig Harbor builder growing commercial side of its business by leaps and bounds
H O L L Y S M I T H P E T E R S O N , C O N T R I B U T I N G W R I T E R
In both residential and commercial divisions, one of the most ubiquitous names in building in the South Sound
in recent years has been Rush Construction.
And several new projects in the past six months are keeping the company right on point in that trend,
particularly in the commercial division.
That’s a goal the company has put into place as part of its strategies to grow projects in that particular niche.
Said recently-hired Rush Commercial vice president Devin Page, it’s all a step along the way for the staggered
one-, three- and five-year business plans.
“We’re definitely in growth mode,” he said. “We’ve hired three new employees in the last two months, and we’re
looking to hire three to five more in the coming ones, effectively doubling the size of our commercial unit in the
next 12 months.”
Among the company’s most important current endeavors around the entire Puget Sound region include
projects in North Redmond, Snohomish and Tukwila. In the South Sound, Rush signage can be seen fronting
significant building sites in Port Orchard and Bremerton, as well as Tacoma, Lakewood and Olympia.
“King County has a very strong commercial building industry right now, and Pierce (is) following suit to a
degree, but it takes a little while for economic activity in King to trickle down,” he said. “Commercial growth in
Olympia and Thurston County is also fairly strong, although a lot depends on how much state hiring they’re
doing.”
For Pierce County, Page counts the lead projects on the current list as The Landing, on Dock Street in Tacoma.
The site encompasses a building that was previously set up for retail but for which roughly 7,000 square feet is
being renovated into law offices.
Previous Rush projects in that area include Thea’s Landing, with 235 apartments and penthouses plus a slew of
shops and restaurants built in 2002. Slightly later came the adjacent The Henry, a seven-story building with 165
apartments and 12,000 square feet of commercial space.
Another Tacoma perk in the works is The Proctor, a multi-use site in the city’s North End. The 39,000-square-
foot, 147-unit building includes several floors of apartments atop 12,000 square feet of first-level retail, and
proposes to be a local economic shot for the neighborhood. Local development partners Bill Evans and Erling
Kuester, both longtime residents of the Proctor district, assembled the land, working with Rush’s Rick Moses
BUSINESS EXAMINER / JUNE 2014 / RUSH CONSTRUCTION NOT JUST 'KEEPING BUSY'
ADVERTISEMENT
Get Data
Book of Lists (XLS file
download) - $199
Search and Purchase individual
lists-price varies
Home News Blog Databank Events Advertising Calendar About Us
0
63.0F Forecast »SHOP | CONTACT US | MY ACCOUNT Search Website
Page1 of 2Rush Construction not just 'keeping busy' - BusinessExaminer - June2014 - Tacoma, WA
6/9/2014http://www.businessexaminer.com/June-2014/Rush-Construction-not-just-keeping-busy/

2. ‫ݖ‬
and Tacoma architecture firm BCRA. The site is currently under construction and is scheduled to be finished
next summer.
Moving south, Olympia will soon see a 130-unit building with garden-style units, for which Rush has contracted
construction work for an outside developer. The site will be located on Fern Street, near Capital Medical Center,
a major West Olympia health care campus whose workers may become some of the apartments’ main tenants.
“We’re going to continue to build, as we have a lot of multi-use and residential things on the table, with a
significant backlog of projects,” said Page. “We are also still pursuing our core commercial leads, which include
commercial office and health care and retail.”
Rush Residential is flourishing, too, with one of the latest jobs being the Bellesara community in Gig Harbor.
The 10-acre neighborhood will include 31 homes ranging from 2,600 to 3,000 square feet and priced at
$400,000 to $450,000. Bellasara is the first of several new neighborhoods Rush has planned, along with
Canterwood Golf Club’s new Division 12 and Gig Harbor North’s Harbor Crossing community.
For commercial specifically, Rush’s varied portfolio aims at building projects anywhere from $50,000 to $30
million. They have also typically focused on just one major site per year. Now, the company is on such a fast
track that it has upped that goal to two or three large projects on an annual basis.
Page added, while the commercial construction market is picking up and other companies are definitely
growing, he thinks that Rush is expanding at a much faster clip.
“That’s in part because we set fairly aggressive goals, and in part because we are aiming to grow Rush not just in
Pierce County, but also around the fringes in the King, Thurston, Kitsap markets,” he said. “And now that we’re
hiring, I see that the market for qualified employees is very tight. That’s just another thing which leads me to
believe it’s in growth mode.”
This article appeared in a June 2014 issue of the Business Examiner print edition. If you enjoyed it, please
comment and share it with others. To get unlimited access to all of our stories, subscribe to the Business
Examiner »
For the latest in local business news, sign up to receive Daily Biz Briefs via e-mail.
One person likes this.LikeLike ShareShare
Facebook social plugin
Also post on Facebook Posting as Devin Page (Not you?) Comment
Add a comment...
Home | News | Blog | Databank | Events | Advertising | Calendar | About Us
Shop | Contact Us | My Account
Copyright 2014 Business Examiner Media Group. All rights reserved.
| A Godengo Technology
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Mark your calendar!
DATE TBA
Nominate: Individual
Nomination deadline July 10
August - October 2014
September 17, 2014
2014 Nominations: open soon
0
63.0F Forecast »SHOP | CONTACT US | MY ACCOUNT Search Website
Page2 of 2Rush Construction not just 'keeping busy' - BusinessExaminer - June2014 - Tacoma, WA
6/9/2014http://www.businessexaminer.com/June-2014/Rush-Construction-not-just-keeping-busy/