Founded by Brent Fillmore in 1991, Fillmore Construction Management Inc. is proud to celebrate 30 years of general contracting for local, national, and international property owners. They complete new construction, tenant improvement, renovation, expansion and facility maintenance projects across Western and Northern Canada.
“Brent came to Edmonton in 1976 after graduating from the University of New Brunswick (UNB) as a civil engineer,” says Chris Fillmore, president. “He quickly became a project manager with a national contractor.”
Chris continues, “Through lessons learned from 13 years of managing projects, developing the business and holding various VP roles with his previous employer, Brent formulated his own approach to how he would run his company. Brent was looking to start his own small construction business and the opportunity presented itself through many repeat client relationships. He knew the key to success was based on relationships and bringing repeated value to them. Brent was dedicated to the idea that you didn’t need to have hundreds of clients and instead would focus on ensuring a smaller pool of clients were given the best service possible. Ready to set out on his own and found Fillmore Construction, Brent put this approach to the test.”
Today Fillmore Construction completes over 100 projects annually across the range of commercial, multifamily, food manufacturing/distribution and light industrial industries.
“By working with exceptional long-term clients in a wide variety of market sectors, we ensure Fillmore Construction can thrive through any economic climate we confront. We can comfortably work with several contract types or styles while providing effective value-added pre-construction and construction services at all times,” says Chris.
“We have worked with many of the same clients for 10, 15, 20, 25 or even 30 years. These repeat clients have enabled us to grow as they have grown. Our greatest opportunities for growth have occurred when key clients needed more sophisticated projects and brought us along for the next phase of their growth. For example, after completing a $9 million commercial professional development for RISE Developments, they brought us in to build a $32 million mixed-use multifamily development in Kelowna. The relationship that started in Grande Prairie several years earlier on a much smaller project birthed our Kelowna operation and introduced us to numerous other great clients and projects. We are currently completing several $20M to $60M projects for multiple clients following The Shore.”
From the start, Brent had guiding values for his company. Thirty years on, those values remain the same. Chris explains, “Our values are people, passion, integrity and innovation. People come first. Our teams are provided with excellent working conditions and benefits, along with opportunities for growth and education. Passion – we love to build, and we build it right. Integrity means being accountable to everyone involved on the project. Through innovation we proceed with learning, curiosity and creativity. We reject the status quo and look for better ways to build.”
Fillmore Construction’s projects include The Shore, the Maskêkosak Kiskinomâtowikamik K-12 Enoch Cree Nation School and Lakeland College Energy Centre in Lloydminster, AB.
“The Shore was our largest and most magnificent multifamily project when we completed it in 2019,” says Chris. “This is a multifunction, mixed-use building with a concrete podium and parkade with a wood frame residential structure on top. Lakeland College Energy Centre, a power engineering training facility, is a marvel of beauty and function. The multicolour glazing allows lots of light to shine over the incredibly detailed and organized lab. The lab includes several boilers and other power engineering equipment set up in an orientation to allow for the best power engineering education possible.”
Excelling in each project is important to Fillmore Construction, and so is being a good community partner. Each year Fillmore gives back to the communities it serves in several different ways.
“Our company morale is strongly based on community involvement,” confirms Chris. “Every year Fillmore Construction strives to support and acknowledge charities and associations surrounding affected individuals in our community and abroad. This adds up to millions in contributions back to the community over the 30-year history of our company. The direct dollar impact back into our community through charitable donations amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
“Fillmore Construction adopted the annual MS Society Bike Tour in 2006 as our primary charitable activity. The Happy Fillmores team is the number one fundraiser for the MS Bike, Walk or Run tours in Canada. To date we have raised over $1.4 million to fight against Multiple Sclerosis. We are inspired by our friends and coworkers who struggle through this debilitating disease. The Happy Fillmores regularly host a team of over 100 participants and 30 volunteers. In 2019 the Happy Fillmores raised an incredible $224,000. In addition to our participation and financial contribution, we have an outsized volunteer hours contribution, we assist in the development of the yearly ride and sponsor the Riders Village in Camrose.”
Chris continues, “Brent graduated from the University of New Brunswick in 1976. His parents had very little to their name and he made it through university on his intellect, summer jobs and scholarships. This is why we offer the Fillmore Family Scholarship, an annual $5,000 scholarship to a UNB civil engineering student who has good grades and needs financial support. We also sponsor four $3,000 scholarships at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) annually. The education NAIT provides to our carpenters, supervisors and project managers is critical to us and our industry.
That’s not all. Chris points out, “We regularly contribute financial donations based on what is important to our employees, their families and our clients. Some of these include local sports teams, Habitat for Humanity, Bicycles for Humanity (B4H), the local food banks of communities we are working in and the World Longest Hockey game.”
Fillmore Construction has much to celebrate with 30 successful years behind the company and many more decades of growth ahead. Chris thanks the team for their unwavering dedication in the past, present, and future. He says, “Our people are key to our success. The dedication to excellence our employees bring each and every day is the ultimate reason Fillmore Construction has been so successful and is the key to our success moving forward.”
He concludes, “As Fillmore Construction continues to grow, we will operate with the same resolve and with a commitment to continue serving our clients with the same approach that enabled us to get where we are today. We have an unwavering commitment to our client’s ventures and the success of their businesses. We don’t want to build just one project for our clients, we continually strive to become each of our clients’ contractor of choice through dedication and strong performance.”
9114 34a Ave NW Edmonton AB T6E 5P4
P: 780.430.0005 • F: 780.437.3998
fillmoreconstruction.com
