Avalon opened our doors for business in 1983, or as I like to think about it, when I was 10 years old; more interested in tree forts than homes. My father Steve was the president of the company and focused on durable affordable housing. Over this period we built mostly in the Central Alberta area with a few projects in the Edmonton region and Peace River region.
My dad was very focused on ensuring that our customers could afford to live in the home they wanted and in delivering great customer service. Under his leadership we expanded into the Calgary region in 1992 which is where I joined the company in a role more than a casual summer labourer, something I had done since the age of 13.
I joined the company as a construction superintendent with my sister Christine as a sales person. After working with my father over a few years we were given the opportunity to take over a community in the Red Deer Region and learn the business from the ground up. This was an exciting time as there were just two employees in the Red Deer branch at the time, me and Christine. We had a lot of fun learning the full business of homebuilding and quickly grew the Red Deer operation from 15 homes per year to over 50.
In around 2000 Dad decided to retire and Christine and I bought into the business as full partners also taking over the Calgary business. During this period we developed our Vision for green building and Mission for customer service that still serves us today. Between 2000 and 2004 we worked on growing the Red Deer business and the Calgary business. In 2004 we gave our Red Deer employees and my other sister Marie a chance to buy into the business creating a new sister company Avalon Central Alberta. From this point on we had two operations that shared the same vision and values but operated independently.
In 2008 I bought out my father’s interest and some of my sisters shares to allow me to bring in two new owners Chris Williams our General Manager who attended business school with me and also worked as casual laborer for Avalon back in the mid ‘90s, and Terra Davidson our Sales Manager who worked with Avalon since ’02 through the Home Builders Association and joined Avalon directly in ’04 to help create Avalon’s brand as it is known today.
Today we focus on building more than 100 sustainable town homes each year and our Discovery homes to ensure that we are continually moving towards net zero construction. We are very committed to volunteering within the industry and multiple generations have served as president of the home builders associations and chair of the Alberta New Home Warranty Program.