Even Mike Silvey has to chuckle somewhat as he ponders the success of the company over which he presides—Spokane Valley-based Silvey Construction Inc.

“I’m not the smartest person Spokane has ever produced,” the company president says. “I think I was a C-plus student coming out of high school. ‘He did way better than I thought he would,’ is probably what most of my old teachers would say,” says the 64-year-old Silvey.

Silvey started the company in 1972 when he was 21. His company specialized in the construction of custom homes. “That’s how we really got going. Over time, the people whose homes we built came back to us and asked if we could build their offices and workplaces,” he says.

And in recent years, the contractor has been doing quite a bit of that, Silvey says. 

“The last two years have been pretty good. Almost all of what we’re doing now is in the medical and dental industries,” he says.

Silvey declined to disclose contract revenue for 2014 and what he’s expecting the company to earn this year.

Since founding the company, he estimates Silvey Construction has built about 75 medical and dental office buildings in the Spokane area and in outlying cities ranging from Cheney to Coeur d’Alene and as far north as Colville. “We try to stay within an hour of Spokane,” Silvey says. He estimates he has an ownership stake in roughly 25 percent of the buildings his company has constructed.

Recently, Silvey Construction was the contractor on an $840,000 two-building medical office complex project at 324 S. Sherman. Spokane dermatologist Dr. W. Philip Werschler developed the complex, named the 3rd & Sherman Medical Campus.

Construction is almost finished on a $3 million, 14,200-square-foot office building at 9911 N. Nevada on Spokane’s North Side. The first tenants are scheduled to move into the building at the end of August, Silvey says.

Silvey says in the last two years, the company has averaged half-a-dozen projects ranging from $100,000 office remodels to $8 million office buildings.

“That’s kind of our niche. We’re not going to build a six-story addition to your hospital,” Silvey says. “We’re not the big guys.” 

Silvey Construction employs eight full-time workers. Most of the work is handled by subcontractors, Silvey says.

Silvey says he believes that many health-care project developers held back construction prior to 2013, in part because of the economy and because of uncertainties in the industry. He says some medical providers waited out the economic downturn, when many patients also put off procedures.

But it’s not just medical complexes that are driving Silvey Construction. 

Silvey says he learned a lot from his father, Morris Silvey, who also worked in construction and died 13 years ago.

“He and his business partner, Kenny Ness, would take me to work construction with them on job sites during the summer. The biggest thing I learned from them is that I didn’t know as much as I thought,” Silvey says.

His father spent much of his career working as a superintendent for Coleman Construction, of Spokane, which built many school buildings here in the ’50s and ’60s, Silvey says.

“My dad showed me that you need to treat people right and surround yourself with good people. And, if you make a mistake… fix it,” Silvey says. Before he retired, Morris went to work for his son’s company in the mid-80s. “Word of mouth is still the best form of advertising in a community like Spokane. It’s still basically a big, small town.”

Jared Silvey, Mike Silvey’s 34-year-old son, has been working for his father in much the same way his father did for his grandfather. “When I was younger, he’d tell me what to do and then drop me off at a construction site,” says Jared Silvey, now a project manager for the company.

Like Mike did from Morris, Jared said he’s learned a lot from Mike.

“I’d say one of the biggest things I’ve learned from him is how to work,” Jared says. “As I’ve gotten older, as I look around, it seems like a lot of people don’t know how to work hard.” He credits his father for him being in the construction business.

Jared Silvey earned his undergraduate degree in finance and entrepreneurship from a branch of Brigham Young University in Rexburg, Idaho. He was working as an intern with Merrill Lynch after college when he realized something was amiss.

“I’m sitting in a suit and tie and realizing I miss working with my dad,” Jared says. “I missed being at sites and working on projects with him. Not a lot of people get to work with their dad. There are days when it can be tough, but most days, it’s a great experience.”

Mike Silvey says he’s started the process of transitioning ownership of the business to Jared, something he expects will occur over the next three to five years. “I plan on staying around even after that as long as he’ll have me.”

Silvey says he believes he has a staff of employees that have helped make Silvey Construction successful. He likes the fact the company offers a full range of services to its customers. He cites the 30,000-square-foot office building at 2020 E. 29th, on Spokane’s South Hill, as an example of the company’s building and philosophy.

He partnered with Spokane attorney Michael Wolfe to secure funding for the building. Despite the fact the economy had collapsed, they proceeded with the building.

 “Now you’re sitting there wondering, ‘What do we do now?’ ’’ Silvey says. “We didn’t have one tenant.”

Instead of abandoning the project, Silvey and Wolfe just decided to keep moving forward with the idea. Nearly six years later, the building is nearly at capacity with tenants, Silvey says. 

“I’ve learned that most of the time, the best thing is to just be patient. We slowly recruited tenants to the building; and it’s worked.

“That’s the thing I like the most about this business,” Silvey says. “I like pulling all the pieces together.”