2012 ABM Contractor of the Year: Cornerstone General Contractors: 'leading construction in the Last Frontier'.

• Author: White, Rindi
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Building Alaska

Cornerstone General Contractors is behind some of the most prominent buildings in Anchorage. The company, which next year will celebrate 20 years of building in Alaska, built the new Health Sciences Building on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus, as well as the ConocoPhillips Integrated Sciences Building, UAA/ APU Consortium Library and residence halls. Cornerstone is working on another major university project--the UAA Seawolf Sports Arena under construction.

Cornerstone's work extends beyond the university campus. Under a joint venture with a partner contractor, they built the Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic in Anchorage, expanded the South Peninsula Hospital in Homer, and built Eklutna Estates, a 59-unit senior living facility for Cook Inlet Housing Authority in Anchorage. Cornerstone was also the general contractor for the state-owned Alaska Culinary Academy in Seward at AVTEC, Alaska's Institute of Technology.

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"Not only have they worked a lot for UAA, but they've had projects with Providence and APU and the Army Corps of Engineers. I think they've got a pretty good reputation for doing what they say they're going to, and for getting things done," says Stan Vanover, senior project manager for the Facilities Planning and Construction Department at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Named Alaska Business Monthly magazine's 2012 Contractor of the Year, Cornerstone enjoys a good reputation for collaborative projects that give owners more bang for their construction buck.

"They do things a little differently," says Shawn Holdridge, project manager for Cook Inlet Housing Authority. "They're about building relationships."

Holdridge says Cornerstone recently returned to the 93,000-square-foot Eklutna Estates project after the facility had been open for two years to repair some flooring. Many contractors provide a one-year wear warranty, he says, but Cornerstone did the work even though it was no longer under warranty.

"That's important for clients, especially nonprofits like ours," Holdridge says.

Customer satisfaction and viewing the building process as a partnership are ideals the company was founded on, says Joe Jolley, a Cornerstone vice president and one of Cornerstone's five owner/partners. He says Cornerstone is always working to improve.

"The construction industry is a competitive business. You're really only as good as your last project. We're looking at being here for the long haul and part of...