(Photo above courtesy of Sun Forest Homes)
1000 Remodels, Over 400 Custom Homes, No Signs of Slowing Down
Sun Forest is turning 40 this year and shows no signs of slowing down as they’ve just taken home five Tour of Homes honors, including Best Outdoor Living Area, Best Interior Finish, Best Kitchen, Best Landscaping and Best of Show and have much in store for their home base of Bend and the surrounding area.
What began as Co-founders Gary Bradshaw and Karl Mandry working with one another on a single job site in Sunriver, soon blossomed into the foundation of what would become Sun Forest Construction as the two men shared ideas of how best to manage builds and work smoothly together during the building process.
What Sun Forest believes sets itself apart from the building community was put into motion that day — namely, the company’s project management system which has been fine tuned over the decades and the unique employee ownership program where every employee from laborers to directors can take part in the company they work for.
“It gives them a vested interest in the company,” said Sam Houston, the company president, speaking of the employee stock ownership plan. “In the construction industry it doesn’t happen very often that painters and finish carpenters end up with much for retirement or end up owning part of the company. The ESOP gives them the mechanism to do that.”
These things, along with the company’s pride in quality work and attention to detail, has allowed Sun Forest to change with the times since their small cabin-building days of the late ’70s and early ’80s to the high quality custom homes of today in places like Tetherow, North Rim, Brasada Ranch and Broken Top.
Though their systems may have developed since the early days of Karl and Gary, the current employees will tell you that it’s all still business as usual and the company is dedicated as ever to excellence in homebuilding.
“We have always done things the right way and that’s very important to us” said Kathy Nelson, current CFO of the company. “I think there was a real spirit of integrity instilled in the company’s mission statement way back when and we all work towards that goal everyday whether we’re building multi-million dollar homes or doing small remodels.”
Sun Forest Construction is located in Bend and has worked with more than 3,000 homeowners in dozens of communities around the state. Their company encompasses everything from the initial concept and design of custom homes and remodels to the finished product.
