Vancouver’s Axis Construction builds new headquarters

Axis Construction's new flex office-warehouse project has an exposed beam entry. (Julia Anderson/The Columbian)

James Niemitalo President, Axis Construction

Commercial builder James Niemitalo added design touches such as this raised metal sink to his office building decor at Cold Creek Business Park in Minnehaha.

Axis Construction Inc. will occupy part of this flex-office-warehouse building at Cold Creek Business Park in Vancouver. Top: Exposed beam entry. (Photos by Julia Anderson/The Columbian)

Axis Construction Inc. president James Niemitalo has given himself permission to have a bit of fun in the design and construction of his company's new Vancouver headquarters space.

Stainless steel wall coverings, raised metal sinks, stamped concrete walls and exposed wood beams are among the touches going into his office-warehouse space inside the Cold Creek Business Park project at the intersection of Northeast 47th Avenue and Northeast Minnehaha Street, east of St. Johns Road.

While the design aspects have been personally rewarding, Niemitalo is counting on the building's upscale appeal and flexible design to attract tenants to the remaining space in the 60,000-square-foot project. The building's upscale look fits with the overall design of the 40-acre park, which features winding roads and decorative landscaping.

Niemitalo is president of the Vancouver construction company and an investor in Flex Properties, which recently completed the $5.8 million office- light industrial project. Axis is currently moving its offices to the location. There's space for as many as 12 more tenants in units as small as 5,000 square feet.

"Because of the economy I'd be nervous if this were retail space or pure office space, but we think the market demand for what we're offering is stronger," Niemitalo said. "Some tenants might include businesses that are looking to downsize."

Niemitalo, 39, launched Axis in 1990 and grew the business by building a mix of commercial, multi-family and light industrial construction projects over nearly two decades. The company employs 150 people, down from 260 during its peak construction year in 2006. In 2008, the company did $11 million worth of work.

Niemitalo rates the current economy at a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10, but he sees pent-up demand for new projects, if consumers gain some confidence and home building picks up.

"A lot of people are champing at the bit to go forward," he said. "We're seeing a lot of projects that people are talking about and we're hearing that there are federal projects in the works that are just waiting on financing."

Niemitalo has seen some tire-kickers interested in renting or buying space in his new building.

Meanwhile other expansion is proceeding inside Cold Creek Business Park, owned by Genteel Investors, a limited partnership owned by brothers Bob and Dick Colf. The first sale in the 40-acre park went to Axis, said Roy Heikkala, project manager. JR Merit, a mechanical contracting business, is to take ownership in the next few weeks of a 14,000-square-foot building nearing completion, he said.

"We are in certain phases of permitting on three other lots," Heikkala said.

At full build-out, Cold Creek could accommodate between 750,000 square feet and 800,000 square feet of buildings.