MOUNTLAKE TERRACE – Yuko Abe only knows of one other developer who’s a woman.
That’s not a lot different from her previous line of work.
“If you think of the fishing industry, there aren’t many females either,” Abe said.
She is the president of AFCO &Sons, a Mountlake Terrace firm that builds homes and apartments in south Snohomish County and other parts of the Puget Sound area.
She also heads Nomco &Co., her family’s business, which is involved in construction, hotel management and the funeral industry in Ishinomaki in northern Japan.
While she lives in America, Abe, 39, spends about half of her time in Japan.
“There are a lot of expensive phone calls back and forth,” she said.
The company was started by her father, Atsushi Abe, who grew up in Ishinomaki but traveled the world as a radio operator on a commercial ship.
In 1980, Atsushi Abe, who died two years ago, decided to return to his hometown and start a business buying and selling vessels. He soon expanded into other industries.
Atsushi Abe wanted to get into commercial fishing, but competition was fierce in Japan. He had traveled to Seattle twice and had a friend who lived in the area.
He decided to start a fishing business in Edmonds. Because the fishing industry is tightly regulated, Atsushi Abe worked with an American business partner.
He had a boat built called the Frontier Spirit in 1989 and then added two more boats, the Frontier Mariner later in 1989 and the Frontier Explorer in 1990-91.
Atsushi Abe and his wife, Kimiyo, had three children. When they reached college age, Atsushi Abe sent them to America to learn English.
“If you want to do business internationally, you have to speak English,” Yuko Abe said.
She spent four years taking classes, first at Seattle Central College and then Seattle University. She then started working with the commercial fishing business, which was called the Alaska Frontier Co. and had offices near Arnies Restaurant on the Edmonds waterfront.
For 10 years, Yuko Abe oversaw marketing and sales for the business, which sent the boats and about 60 crew members to harvest Pacific cod in the Bering Sea. The Alaska Frontier Co. sold thousands of cases of fish each season across the world.
In 2006, the family decided to expand operations in America by starting a development company that eventually came to be called AFCO &Sons.
AFCO stands for the Alaska Frontier Company. The ‘Sons’ part came from Atsushi Abe.
“My dad wanted to name it ‘Sons,’” Yuko Abe said. “He only had one son and two daughters, but we thought, ‘Why not?’”
Yuko Abe would run the company and her younger sister, Kumi Abe, would be vice president. Their younger brother, Daisuke Abe, lives in Tokyo.
Atsushi Abe thought that the company’s philosophy would translate well across the Pacific.
“My dad was confident that we could be successful in real estate in the U.S.,” said Kumi Abe, who is now 34.
Their first project was to build an 18-unit apartment complex in Mountlake Terrace. That’s where they set up offices for the new company.
The Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties doesn’t keep track of the number of developers who are women. “Women are playing an increasing role in development in this area,” said Mike Pattison of the association, who works in Snohomish County. “More and more, we’re seeing women not just running companies, but taking leadership roles in our organization.”
He points to Martha Rose, a Shoreline developer who is president of the Master Builders Association. A previous president is Lynn Eshleman of Pacific Ridge Homes in Bothell.
Just as the development arm of the company started up, the Abes received an offer from a competitor for their commercial fishing operations. The family was friendly with the competitor, Clipper Seafood, and the deal just made sense, Yuko Abe said.
“The offer we received was great,” Yuko Abe said.
They sold that portion of the business in September 2008, a month after the financial collapse. Just as they started to focus on development, the housing market went upside down.
That didn’t stop her from building the company’s largest project, Arbor Village, a 123-unit, five-story apartment complex at 23609 56th Ave. W.
Yuko Abe purchased the land for the development in 2009 and started the $19 million project in 2011. It was finished in August 2013.
With her company’s offices next door, Yuko Abe said, she’s comfortable with Mountlake Terrace.
“If you drive to the city, it’s so convenient. It’s not as far as Lynnwood or Mill Creek,” Abe said. “But the price point is so different from Seattle.
“We also have a chance to grow with the city.”
The Arbor Village project has won praise. This year, Arbor Village received a Vision 2040 award from the Puget Sound Regional Council, which gives annual awards to recognize regional innovations in managing growth and sustaining quality of life.
About 95 percent of the apartments are leased. Commercial space on the ground floor has been less successful. The building can accommodate up to nine businesses, but only one space is leased. That’s a salon.
“I want to keep building, but it has to pencil out,” Yuko Abe said.
AFCO &Sons has also bought apartment complexes in Seattle and Edmonds, renovated them and sold them for a profit, Yuko Abe said.
The company has also built about 10 homes, mostly in Seattle’s Eastside suburbs. Another 10 are in the pipeline. Yuko and Kumi Abe hope to build about 20 a year, but the recession has hamstrung that plan.
The operation in Snohomish County is small compared to the Japanese company.
AFCO &Sons employs six people. The Japanese portion of the company employs 170 and is one of the largest employers in Ishinomaki, which was one of the city’s most hurt by a 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Even though she grew up in Japan, Yuko Abe says she’s firmly planted in America.
She lives with her husband, Takao Kikuchi, in a Seattle condo the family bought when they first started the commercial fishing business. Her husband, who is not involved in AFCO &Sons, owns Dragonfish Asian Café in the Paramount Hotel in downtown Seattle. Kumi Abe lives a couple of blocks away from their Mountlake Terrace offices.
Yuko Abe said she enjoys the business environment in America.
“It’s so active and fast,” she said. “In Japan, it’s been quiet for over 20 years.”
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