By Mark MacDonald
NANAIMO – The boardroom at IWCD also serves as the company’s unofficial “Wall of Fame” at its office on McCullough Road in Nanaimo, and the owners now have a few more awards to mount.
Safety Manager Mike Healey won the Safety Officer of the Year award and an IWCD project, Lake House Physio + Therapy of Lake Cowichan, won a trophy at the recent Vancouver Island Construction Association awards in Victoria, following an Award of Excellence at the Vancouver Island Commercial Building Awards.
“Safety is a major priority with all of IWCD’s projects,” says IWCD Vice President Patrick Brandreth. “Back in the day, Mike was our sole safety officer , but now he’s our Chief Safety Officer in charge of half a dozen safety officers throughout our jobs on the Island. It can be a tough gig, trying to keep everybody safe while keeping the jobs moving along at a reasonable pace is no easy task. It’s all in how you deliver it and the respect you gain on the jobsite, Mike does a fabulous job and balancing all of those things.”
Greg Constable, centre, and Patrick Brandreth, right, of IWCD, with Simon Miller of RBC when IWCD was named Construction/Development Company of the Year in the Vancouver Island Business Excellence Awards (File Photo)
President Greg Constable adds “Our priority is to keep our employees safe, and we’ve been successful doing that throughout the years. At the end of the day we will do whatever is necessary to make sure our employees get home every night safe to their families.”
There are over 50 awards gracing the walls of IWCD’s boardroom which is certainly a testament to the success they have had over the years.
Brandreth says the Lake House project award was especially satisfying.
“It wasn’t a large project nor was it a complicated one but when you have the opportunity to be involved in an owners first building that they have worked so hard to get their business to that point it just feels really good, I really congratulate them.”
IWCD now has 175 employees working on numerous projects across Vancouver Island.
IWCD Chief Safety Officer Mike Healey
“We have been fortunate to stay busy while the market has cooled off a bit which has been working in our favor,,” Constable notes. “Now we’re walking onto the job sites with a full gamut of trades that we need, which is a lot better than it was.”
IWCD currently has a variety of different projects underway, Brandreth states.
“Currently we are wrapping up a large light industrial development in Langford, and in construction on a few multi-residential buildings in Colwood’s Royal Bay with the same client with a few more in pre-construction. We have also just broke ground on another 104 unit purpose-built rental building in Esquimalt with Denciti Development Corp. and are well into construction on two six story rental buildings in Saanich at the old Marigold Nursery site totaling 256 units. We are also excited to be getting close to starting on our largest automotive dealership to date in Langford,” he notes.
“We’re really excited to be in the industry and we’re making a lot of headway in Victoria,” Constable points out. “Our management team and staff are really starting to come together in Victoria and taking a lot of responsibility off our hands.”
In Nanaimo, IWCD just earned an Award of Excellence for the Nanaimo Honda dealership, recently finished the Nanaimo Hyundai dealership, and is midway through a new home for Galaxy Motors which is right across Kenworth Road from another purpose-built rental project they have under construction.
“We’ve been building steadily in Port Alberni for seven years now,” says Constable, “We’ve always got two or three projects happening there, and we have 12-15 full-time employees living there now, which is kind of neat.” Noting that IWCD has just wrapped up Timberline, a 100 unit Seniors Care Facility in Port Alberni.
IWCD is also nearing completion on a 50 unit rental building in Courtenay beside the 17th Avenue bridge called Riverside, which at six storeys will be the highest building in the city and they have just broken ground on an 85-unit rental building in Campbell River.
“It’s a nice balance,” Brandreth observes. “We have some automotive dealerships that continue to come our way, and light industrial buildings that we have done very well with because of our experience with concrete tilt and just the sheer number of multi-residential buildings that have come to the market is really staggering.”
