Established: 1987

Location: 9210 Vanguard Drive, Anchorage

Telephone: 907-344-5678

Major focus of services: Spinell Homes Inc. specializes in residential construction and this year started building some office and warehouse projects.

History of the company: Chuck Spinelli and Tod Schroder started Spinell Homes Inc. with one construction worker and one office staffer. Despite an economic downturn in the late 1980s Spinell Homes built 25 homes each year in its first two years. In 1989 the company had hired more employees and built 60 houses, and in 1990 Spinell Homes built nearly 80 homes. The company has built 1,500 homes in Anchorage, Eagle River and the Matanuska Valley.

Spinell Homes constructs a range of homes from $125,000 condominiums in Anchorage to houses selling for nearly $1 million in Turnagain Arm.

In 2001 the company is starting a new energy-efficient home program through the Alaska Housing Finance Corp. for new homes it's building in the Valley.

Top accomplishment of the company: Spinelli is most proud of the high marks home buyers give his company. About 90 percent of the surveys list above average ratings, he said. "We try to enjoy what we do and it isn't enjoyable if the customer isn't satisfied," he said. Spinell Homes also has received several Golden Hammer awards from the Anchorage Home Builders Association Inc. The builder has been listed among the top 400 builders in Professional Builder magazine for seven of the past eight years. Spinelli, who is vice president of AHBA, also enjoys community service to organizations and sports teams.

Major player: Chuck Spinelli, president and owner, Spinell Homes Inc.

Spinelli, whose father was a masonry contractor, left a job in 1978 as a California school teacher to work with a concrete contractor in Idaho. He was transferred to Alaska in 1984 to run the state division of Bowen Construction. That company left Alaska in the 1980s during the economic downturn, and Spinelli started his own company.

-- Nancy Pounds