After taking over Spokane-based Associated Construction Inc. from their father in 2021, third-generation owners Brandon and Kyle Smith say their niche of working with longtime clients has led the company to a successful last two years.

“Last year was phenomenal,” says Brandon Smith, president and co-owner of Associated Construction Inc. “2024 was our best year ever for both revenue and profitability, and we were just a tad behind that in ’25, so it was a good year.”

The firm has generated about $24 million in 2025, slightly down from $25 million in annual revenue in 2024, the brothers say.

Associated Construction, founded in 1976 by the Smith brother's grandfather, specializes in new construction and remodel jobs for fast food and retail chains, financial institutions, hospitals, utility services, and nonprofits, according to the company’s website.

“That’s our bread and butter — negotiated work with long-standing clients,” he says. “We’ve been working with McDonald’s since the late ‘80s, same with Washington Trust Bank, and Starbucks since 2014. We like the culture, relationships, and stay in the private sector and just negotiate our work as much as we can.”

Along with corporate restaurant and retail projects — including at least 22 McDonald’s locations, 10 Starbucks coffee shops, and 11 Washington Trust Bank branches — the development team has completed a remodel of Davenport Hotel’s Emporium coffee and retail shop and its Lobby Bar in 2024, says Kyle Smith, vice president and co-owner.

“In addition to handling all the work with our regular clients, we can go out and build cool stuff and take on new projects when our main clients are kind of slow,” he says. “I'd say we pride ourselves on our quality and our reputation a little bit, and that we can take on difficult projects.”

The firm has also pivoted recently to fulfilling more new-build contracts — completing six new buildings last year as opposed to their typical two or three, Brandon Smith says. While the firm completed less projects last year, the new-build projects kept them busy.

“We’ve been doing 60 to 70 jobs a year, and last year we did 45 but had ground-up (projects),” Brandon Smith explains. “So we had fewer jobs but bigger projects in general.”

With 20 employees, including superintendents, carpenters, and office staff, the firm subcontracts around 80% of a project’s trade work, Kyle Smith adds.

“Every job gets a superintendent and an as-needed carpenter,” he says. “A lot of the trades are subbed out, from footings to concrete to framing and finishes, it all gets subbed out.”

At the moment, the company has a full backlog, and the brothers expect a profitable year ahead. Staying steady is the key, they say.

“We understand where the industry is at, where our clients are. We think we can reach last year's revenue and profits and that's certainly our goal,” Kyle Smith says. “We take what our clients give us, certainly, but we're not going to go out and hire more people just to get more revenue and do a lot of work for cheap margins. There’s really no need for that in our particular business, so our goals are basically just to continue to take care of our clients.”

Out of Associated Construction’s 20 employees, the brothers estimate that around half of their staff have been employed with the company for at least 20 years. One employee started working in the 1980’s, Brandon Smith says.

Kyle Smith joined Associated Construction as an employee in 2011 after graduating with a degree in civil engineering and working for another construction firm. Brandon Smith joined in 2013 with a finance and professional golf background.

“Growing up, I worked maybe two days for my dad, and he never pushed us to get into the business,” Brandon Smith says. “We always worked but we did other stuff, and so it wasn't always laid out that we were going to take over. I think we kind of gravitated back towards here.”

The two say they enjoy getting out of the office and managing projects themselves, something made possible by the firm’s smaller size.

“I don't think a lot of the bigger guys, certainly the owners, are out there running work, and it might be to our detriment,” Brandon Smith says. “Sometimes we max ourselves out, but it just allows us to keep better control over the quality.”

Both Brandon and Kyle Smith say increasing efficiency and cutting costs will also be a priority in the year ahead.

“We're always trying to be more streamlined and more efficient,” Brandon Smith says. “We’re not trying to be the biggest contractor out there. We have our niche, and we like it, and we just want to continue to get better at what we do.”