After 128 years, an Everett business moves out of downtown

EVERETT — Trying to be in two places at the same time? With business booming, it became a challenge for a 128-year-old Everett company.

Goldfinch Brothers has been in business at the corner of Rucker Avenue and California Street since 1892. But in 1999 the glass and glazing company added a second Everett location, on Holly Drive.

The Rucker office — its headquarters — focused on residential window and door sales and service, while the Holly Drive facility focused on the commercial end — “the largest part of our business,” said Scott Murphy, the firm’s president. Murphy has served on the Everett City Council since 2013.

By 2013 or so, the business had outgrown both locations. The search was on for a property that could house them under one roof.

This summer, the two halves finally merged and the company moved into a new building at 11300 Beverly Park Road near Everett.

At 83,000 square feet, the Beverly Park Road headquarters is two times larger than both the previous facilities and includes plenty of room to grow, said Sean Goldfinch, a sixth-generation owner.

About two-thirds of the space is given over to the production floor, where glass is cut and finished and window frames are fabricated.

“We are very fortunate to have our business grow at such a rapid pace that we have outgrown both facilities,” said CEO Greg Goldfinch. “My brother Geoff and I built this new plant with the conviction that the sixth generation will catapult the business to an even higher level.”

The company’s new headquarters is easy to spot. It’s the airy, two-story building with all the glass.

The interior is a showcase for Goldfinch’s wares, Most noticeable is a glass staircase that rises from the first to second floor. Three layers of laminated glass — etched to make a non-skid surface — went into each of the 23 steps.

In a nod to its downtown Everett roots, photographs dating from the 1900s, light fixtures from the 1930s and ledgers from the 1940s — plucked from the Rucker location — are part of the new building’s decor, said Jenae Goldfinch, the company’s estimator and project manager.

If you wonder whether the lengthy Rucker Renewal Project, which disrupted vehicle and foot traffic on a downtown Everett stretch for a year, was a push factor, it was not, said Murphy.

Five years ago, Goldfinch bought the first of three parcels near Beverly Park Road and Airport Road that would become the new headquarters.

“The Rucker project went on longer than anyone expected,” Murphy said. “About the same time that finished, we moved out.”

The design and permit process for the new building, which took a year, began in 2018. Construction got under way last summer.

The company’s former headquarters in downtown Everett was a fooler, Murphy said. Visitors would see the small, 16,000-square-foot brick building and think the company was equally sized — not realizing how much Goldfinch had grown since its 19th century founding.

“A lot of people don’t realize the scope and scale of the projects we work on,” he said. The company fabricates and installs exterior glass, along with interior glass walls and doors, glass dividers and art glass — which often define the configuration of new homes and offices.

Locally, Goldfinch installed the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the runway and ramp at the new Paine Field passenger terminal in Everett. Goldfinch was the glazing contractor for Everett’s new YMCA, Cocoon House and HopeWorks Station on Broadway.

Commercial work accounts for nearly 80% of its business. “That’s where the growth has been the last decade or so,” Murphy said.

Goldfinch is the glazing contractor for some of the Puget Sound region’s larger construction projects, including the new Costco headquarters in Issaquah, nine new buildings on the Microsoft campus in Redmond and new construction at Seattle Children’s hospital in Seattle.

“Eighty percent of our business — both residential and commercial — is in King County,” Murphy said. “You just look at the tower cranes there. That’s where a lot of the demand is coming from.”

Remaining in Snohomish County was a priority “given our roots in Everett,” Murphy said. “We still have an Everett address, though we’re about a block outside the city limits, in unincorporated Snohomish County.”

The company’s former downtown Everett office — a 1930-era brick, two-story building — won’t be empty for long, Murphy said.

The Goldfinches, who own the property, have already signed a new tenant.

The 26,000-square-foot Holly Drive location is being used to store material for upcoming projects, but the long-term plan is to lease the property, Murphy said.

Goldfinch, which employs more than 150 people, continues to grow. “We’ve added 10 people in the last month or so,” Murphy said.

“We brought everyone together under one roof and took the best of both locations,” he said.

Janice Podsada; jpodsada@heraldnet.com; 425-339-3097; Twitter: JanicePods