Professional Pilot, October 2016
W hether your fl ight adventures or business travels take you to small town airfi elds or the largest of commercial airports you probably dont think about the underlying infrastructure that is often taken for granted Who built the control tower that directed you in or the FBO that welcomed you with fuel and protection from the elements In the aviation history rich Pacifi c Northwest there is a company that wants you to think about that And when you do they want Centrex Construction to be the name that comes to mind Story of a construction company devoted to aviation By 1974 after 6 college enrollments in 6 years young California native James Severson had fi gured out that higher education was not his calling He remembers I was disillusioned with my college career I was trying to fi gure out how I would fi t in and what I liked to do What 40 PROFESSIONAL PILOT October 2016 he realized was that he really liked to create And as a foreshadowing of the application of aviation to his business he had an attraction to effi ciency Tapping into that desire to make things Severson turned to construction While mentoring under his uncle he and a partner opened California Contractors in the San Fernando Valley and within a couple years they had moderate success Severson and his wife had spent their whole lives in Southern California but when their fi rst child Jimmy was born in 1978 they headed north to Oregon for a new beginning Upon arrival Severson dissolved his previous partnership and branched out on his own with his new venture Centrex Construction By the mid 1980s Centrex had expanded to over 50 employees and was han CORPORATE PROFILE Centrex Construction builds aviation structures in the NW Sky oriented execs beat a path to company conceived by James Severson to build hangars FBOs helo bases and av museums By Brent Bundy Offi cer Pilot for Phoenix Police AS350 AW119 Cessna 182 172 James Severson founded Centrex in 1978 After 38 years the company is a leader in av planning and building in the West Coast Photos by Brent Bundy At PDX Portland Intl OR the Centrex team poses with their Pilatus PC12 and Cessna P210N Theyre building a new 72000 sq ft base for Atlantic Aviation here The facility is slated to open Q1 2017
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