Big, Heavy and Nimble

T Bailey incorporated steel windmill tower elements into the design of its new headquarters building in Anacortes.

Whether working on projects that
are big and heavy or small and artistic, T Bailey Inc. is using its skill in
steel fabrication as the basis for a successful business model. While the
Anacortes-based company is best known for building large water tanks and
bridges, it has generated fresh growth by taking on trendy jobs like windmill
towers and residential projects. And to establish its identity as a
cutting-edge fabricator, it has commissioned the design of an impressive new
headquarters building.

Gene Tanaka, 51, who founded the
company in 1991, says heavy industrial construction using welded steel-plate
fabrication is the firms primary competitive advantage. The company, which
generates $30 million to $40 million in annual revenues, recently built the
carbon and stainless steel Westway Terminals methanol storage tanks in
Aberdeen, capable of holding 3.3 million gallons each, although it has built
tanks capable of holding as much as 12 million gallons. The company expanded
into a new field when it supplied two 240-foot-long, 275,000-pound steel
pilings for the new Port Mann Bridge outside Vancouver, B.C.

In the process of taking on these
big projects, the business has added a number of skills to its repertoire
including earthwork, concrete foundations, utilities and mechanical work. As a
result, T Bailey has successfully built a steel-reinforced niche in such
regional markets as Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and Hawaii,
bidding on low-risk, high-competition public projects as well as higher-risk
private projects.

In addition to its 20 administrative
employees, T Bailey has 25 to 125 employees in its manufacturing facilities
depending on the kind of projects its working on at any given time. The
facility, one of the largest in the region, allows flexibility.

Tanaka says working in remote sites
in Alaska has taught him how to deal with financial and logistical risks. Many
construction sites in Alaska can be reached only by barge or plane. When you
depend on barges that might make one or two trips a year, meeting deadlines
becomes critical. You have to have the complete scope of the project on the
barge and hope it arrives on time and doesnt get stuck in an ice break, he
says. You hope all the equipment runs when you get up there. It is
challenging, but it gets you excited at the same time.

His experience in operating in such
environments has given Tanaka a taste for taking on other challenging projects.
The company is currently bidding on a job in Alaska that wont allow for the
use of any heavy equipment due to its location. T Bailey will need to haul
steel plates with dolly wheels, hydraulic jacks and air tuggers while jacking
up an existing tank. The job involves increasing the water storage capacity of
the tanks, and it must be completed before a nearby freshwater lake freezes and
the water supply runs out.

An important new business for T
Bailey is the construction of wind towers, a business it launched in 2001. In
2007, Tanaka established Katana Industries within T Baileys Ephrata facility
to create towers for windmills. Tanaka then cut a deal to provide its towers
exclusively to Sumitomo Corp., one of the worlds largest trading companies,
until 2012. As part of the deal, the trading company acquired a 50 percent
interest in Katana.

Under its agreement with Katana, T
Bailey built the highly engineered Eye of the Wind facility on Vancouver,
B.C.s Grouse Mountain. The energy tower includes features such as interior
public elevators.

T Bailey has also teamed up with
Seattles Olson Kundig Architects to fabricate a steel Spokane residence that
mixes untreated steel with glass to create a distinct architectural design. We
may have kind of touched the art side of steel fabrication through that
relationship, Tanaka says. Along the same lines, T Bailey is working on a
cantilevered bridge for a Seattle firefighting training facility, an artistic
tubular, leaf-like design hovering over a pond.

To showcase T Baileys steel
skills, Tanaka commissioned Tom Kundig of Olson Kundig to design a new
headquarters building adjacent to T Baileys fabrication facility. The 11,700-square-foot office features
steel tubes and construction that will all be welded together at the
fabrication plant. Visitors will enter the building through a horizontal pipe
14 feet in diameter and reach the main office by a staircase set into a
vertical 22-foot-diameter pipea play off the concept of a wind turbine.

Kundig says he wants to showcase
the beauty of steel fabrication in his design. What is great about doing a
building for a company making extraordinary things is if you can use them [the
materials] in an authentic way, then you have told the story of the industry of
this place, Kundig says. You have told it in a way that is beautiful and
exciting.

The decision to use steel in the
construction of the headquarters felt natural to Tanaka. Obviously, I spend a
lot of my waking hours dealing with steel and I want the steel plate and what
we do to be part of our environment at work, Tanaka says. Not only to touch
it myself, but for the rest of the employees to feel proud of the unique
transformation [of steel].

The new headquarters, which could
be built as early as 2011, is designed to establish T Baileys identity as an
innovator in the field of steel fabrication.

What comes out of this building is an
indicator that Gene is not afraid of embracing what can be done with his
machinery, Kundig says. It is an indicator of a company that enjoys what it
does and explores the possibilities of what it does.