The Mare Island building, which housed their successful business, was badly damaged in the Aug. 24, 2014 temblor, forcing them to move and they weren’t sure where they were going to go.
The last part of that process — moving Western Dovetail’s offices into the firm’s new Mare Island building — was recently completed, and everyone is letting out a collective sigh of relief.
At 1101 Nimitz Ave Suite 140, Western Dovetail is now a block from its old building and from the one it was using temporarily in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake.
The brothers, who started working in cabinetry with their father as children in Sonoma, had to assess the damage and come up with future plans while continuing to serve their growing customer base.
Western Dovetail has been in business for more than 20 years and on the island for more than a decade.
“On that dismal Sunday morning, Western Dovetail President Max Hunter and Vice President Josh Hunter were in Atlanta, Ga., for the IWF trade show.
They returned to California that day to find the area around their building had been blocked off with k-rail and caution tape, and big red stickers that said “UNSAFE” were on the doors,” Max Hunter wrote in a blog on the anniversary of the quake that nearly destroyed the family business. “There was debris all over the ground, the plaster pilasters had fallen off and lay crumpled on the ground and there were bricks scattered everywhere.
The picnic table where employees ate lunch was buried under a pile of bricks; vehicles parked nearby had parts of the building on top of them; gas lines and electrical lines snapped, water from sprinklers pouring down the sides of the building. What had been the home of Western Dovetail for the past eleven years was now a disaster area, off limits to anyone until further notice.”
Immediately after the earthquake the men set up an office right next door to Rep. Mike Thompson’s office, he said.
“Most recently, we relocated it into our new shop building. Now we’re finally, after being scattered all over the island, we’re again all mostly in one building,” Max Hunter said. “It took quite a lot of moving, but I think we’re done for a while. The last year and a half has been a struggle.”
Max Hunter said the brothers “spent a whole year building up the new shop — infrastructure, electrical, plumbing, ducting, installing our equipment — all the things it takes to build a shop.”
It’s been a strain in more ways than one, they said.
“I think we’re stable again, and seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Our resources are again going into producing our product. We’re making a modest profit now, as we were before the earthquake,” Max Hunter said.
The final result of the brothers’ search for another building is not perfect, but beats by a long shot, having to move the whole shootin’ match somewhere else, they said.
“Staying on the island seemed to be the only real viable option — to work with our relationship with Lennar (Mare Island) and find something convenient and close and that didn’t require completely relocating,” Max Hunter said. “We explored off-island options, but those didn’t look like they were immediately available and we couldn’t risk shutting our doors for even 30 days, without risking losing customers. At the end of the day, we have less space and are paying more money.”
But, continuing uninterrupted was the goal, the men said.
“We were able to not have to tell a single customer we couldn’t produce their order, which has proven to be the right thing to do,” Max Hunter said. “We have basically completely recovered.”
Though the prospect of another earthquake does give them pause, the firm’s new building is among the newest on the island built by the Navy in the mid 1980s and meets at least early earthquake standards, he said.
The men are unlikely to ever forget the earthquake of 2014, they said.
“After two weeks the fear of aftershocks faded, and the building department allowed limited access to the old shop twice a week, for four hours each day,” Max Hunter wrote. “Neighbors at Blu Homes offered part of their warehouse to store rescued machinery, and the owners of the TV show BattleBots offered their warehouse for temporary storage.”
After searching the entire Bay Area for a suitable building to move into, the decision was made to stay on the island, but a new set of challenges quickly surfaced, the men said.
“The new building had no infrastructure, 40-foot tall ceilings, is 30 percent smaller than the old shop, and wide open, with no posts to mount electrical panels on,” he said.
“The heroics of the Western Dovetail crew led by Josh Hunter, combined with the financial management of CEO Max Hunter, brought the company back to the break-even point by the end of the first quarter 2015,” he wrote. “Working together, the brothers were able to keep their entire crew working through this challenging year, and have recently added staff.”
In his blog, Max Hunter thanks family, employees, friends and others “who helped and donated time and money when we needed it most, as well as vendors, and, “our amazing customers who continue to believe in us and stuck with us though the worst of times. We could not have made it without your patience and loyalty.”
Josh Hunter echoed his brother’s sentiments.
“We’re finally back at 100 percent and sales are taking off,” he said. “We kept all our customers happy even during the worst of it, and are ready to expand again.”
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©2016 Times-Herald (Vallejo, Calif.)
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