BNBuilders is an employee-owned general contractor founded in Seattle in 2000. It’s still headquartered on Elliott Avenue and now runs offices in Tacoma, San Mateo, Los Angeles, Irvine, San Diego and Denver. The firm got its start in life science work and leans toward technical jobs: labs, healthcare, higher education, K-12, civic buildings, technology and office space, plus multifamily housing. It self-performs some work, has a special projects group and leans on virtual design and construction. BNBuilders was the first general contractor to sign The Climate Pledge. In Olympia, it was GC/CM on the rehabilitation and expansion of the Joel M. Pritchard Building, the former Washington State Library, which reopened in September 2026 after a renovation funded at more than $131 million.
BNBuilders has been 100 percent employee-owned since December 23, 2021, when an ESOP took effect and was announced to a staff of more than 1,000. Brad Bastian, named in that announcement as president and founder, stayed on, and the company said project and leadership teams would not change with the transition.
The first job, back in 2000, was a Dendreon cell therapy lab build-out for Alexandria Real Estate Equities — life science from the start. The first ground-up project came in 2004, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe’s Health and Wellness Center. The first tower crane went up in 2007 on the 199 East Blaine office building, and 2010 was the first year the company logged more than 500,000 craft hours. Office expansion followed a steady rhythm: San Diego in 2010, Irvine in 2017, the Bay Area in 2019, then Denver and Los Angeles in 2021. The Seattle headquarters moved into a renovated historic waterfront building in 2025, and Tacoma on Broadway became the second Washington office.
Craft labor is kept in-house. The company self-performs work from concrete through drywall, and runs a Special Projects Group sized for jobs too small to justify a full crew. Other listed capabilities include preconstruction, sustainable construction, virtual design and construction, design-build delivery, and a vendor engagement program aimed at small, diverse and disadvantaged businesses. Nine sector groups cover life science and pharmaceutical, healthcare, higher education, K-12, technology and R&D, and entertainment and hospitality, among others.
On climate, the firm states it was the first general contractor to sign The Climate Pledge and has committed to net zero by 2040. Safety has its own cadence: an annual Safety Summit has run since 2007, and recent recognition includes an AGC Build Washington Award and a Construction Safety Excellence Award. An annual client appreciation event has run since 2006.
Current Northwest work on the company’s news page gives a sense of the range: the Kraken Iceplex in Kirkland, a $54 million welcome building for Western Washington University in Bellingham, and a $100 million Inglemoor High School replacement.
Each office runs a Community Involvement Team organizing service projects and fundraisers. The stated vision is to become the nation’s most innovative and technically advanced builder, organized around six principles — community, diversity, innovation, knowledge, safety and sustainability.
One address note for anyone mapping the offices: the location the firm calls San Francisco is physically in San Mateo.
