MH Construction moving from Clearwater Avenue to Badger Canyon

Trying to get to MH Construction’s front office door in Kennewick can be tricky.

While the building at 4211 West Clearwater Ave. is clearly visible from that main roadway, visitors might need a map to get there.

They’ll have to drive a half a block west, turn right between a used car lot and a Mexican restaurant, then take a right into a back alley before finding the front door.

“That’s why we’re building a new building,” said Alex Linde, vice president of administration for MH Construction.

The company’s new building at 106010 Wiser Parkway in Kennewick is sidled up next to Interstate 82 in Badger Canyon.

The cost of the building is estimated to be more than $1 million.

The company plans on moving in the first weekend of May.

“We’ve been working on the new place for over a year,” Linde said.

The new building will provide MH Construction with more space.

That’s what a growing company needs when business is going well.

When owner Mike Holstein started the company in 2010, it was just him and a few employees, and he was running the business out of his home.

The company moved into its current location a few years later, but it’s grown to 25 employees and it’s looking for more.

“We’ve almost doubled our business in the last two years,” Linde said.

The current building has 2,500 square feet of office space.

The new building features 3,700 square feet of office space, with some earmarked for a company interested in leasing it from MH Construction.

In addition, there will be a 16,000-square-foot warehouse.

“The new place is huge. The warehouse will allow us to store our equipment, such as scissor lifts, inside instead of outside where they are now,” Linde said. “Or if we can get a good deal on lumber, we can order a large quantity and we can now store it in the warehouse.”

In addition, the company that leases office space from MH Construction will be able to use some of that warehouse space.

Holstein began his construction career as a carpenter for both Garrison Construction and Viking Construction before moving to Bouten Construction in 1993.

At Bouten, Holstein kept getting promoted until he became a project manager/estimator and then satellite office manager in the Tri-Cities.

He managed numerous projects, including the Kadlec North Tower ($36.3 million) and Spokane’s Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital ($17.2 million).

From 2006-10, Holstein worked for Chervenell Construction, where he was a project manager/estimator before he became vice president of operations and a stock holder in the company.

As an estimator and project manager, Holstein headed up the Columbia Basin College Vocational Educational Building project ($16.1 million) and the Kiona-Benton City High School project ($14 million), as well as numerous area elementary schools.

“So Mike was accustomed to start projects and bid on them,” Linde said. “Some of the premier projects we’ve done are the Tri-Cities Cancer Center remodel and addition and the Country Mercantile store in Richland. We’re also doing the public works project for the city of Union Gap, and the remodel of Zillah High School.”

The Union Gap project will include a campus for City Hall, city council chambers, offices for all city departments and the Union Gap police department offices.

MH Construction’s new building will match the growth the company has been experiencing and hopes to continue experiencing.

“We are 100 percent a commercial and industrial construction company,” Linde said. “We’re going to continue going up the Yakima Valley for more work, and continue in public works.

“We’re trying to fabricate growth, and grow organically as the community grows,” Linde continued. “Business is good. We need to keep feeding the machine.”