A F Alber built Zumiez's first East Coast location — and went on to deliver 35+ mall-based action sports retail stores across the region. It started with a trade magazine article and a phone call.
35+ mall-based retail stores built across the East Coast for the nation's leading action sports retailer. Includes Zumiez's very first East Coast location.
Not every client comes from an existing relationship. Some come from paying attention, being willing to pick up the phone, and making a promise you can keep.
Anthony Alber read about Zumiez in a trade magazine. At the time, the action sports retailer was exclusively a West Coast brand — founded in 1978 in Seattle as "Above the Belt," Zumiez had built its reputation in the Pacific Northwest before expanding nationally through mall-based stores. But they had no East Coast presence.
Anthony cold-called them. He introduced A F Alber, explained our retail construction experience, and suggested that when Zumiez was ready to expand east, they should call him.
They did.
A F Alber built Zumiez's very first East Coast location in upstate New York — a milestone store that marked the brand's entry into a new market. That first build-out led to a 35+ store program spanning malls across the eastern United States, and a relationship that continues today.
Zumiez is a leading specialty retailer of action sports apparel, footwear, accessories, and hardgoods — targeting young men and women aged 12 to 25 who live the skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, and BMX lifestyle.
Zumiez stores are designed with an "organized chaos" aesthetic — the interior is meant to feel like a teenager's bedroom crossed with a skate shop. But behind that intentionally casual look is a precisely engineered retail space.
The typical Zumiez store includes green-stained cement floors, industrial-style fixtures, thrift-store-inspired furniture, video game stations, couches, changing rooms, a dedicated skate shop section, and extensive branded graphics. Every element has to be built to look effortless while meeting mall standards, ADA requirements, and brand specifications.
That tension between "looks casual" and "built to code" is what makes Zumiez construction interesting — and it's the kind of challenge A F Alber has handled 35+ times.
Murphy Varey, the architect who designed a number of Zumiez stores, referred A F Alber to Sur La Table — the specialty kitchen retailer. One client led to one architect led to one more client. It's the same pattern that has defined our business since 1987: do the work well, and the work finds you.
This is how A F Alber has grown for nearly four decades. Not through advertising or marketing campaigns, but through the simple act of people recommending us to their colleagues. Whether it's a construction manager who changes companies or an architect who brings us to their next client, the referral chain is the engine of our business. Read the full story of how every A F Alber client connects back to one relationship →
