IT WAS GOOD FORTUNE that brought the McKee family to Airdrie in the early eighties. The newly immigrated McKees were driving around Calgary looking for a house to call home. Heading out of the city going north, they discovered Airdrie when they stopped for lunch. The big trees on Centre Avenue were reminiscent of the trees in Ireland and they decided to stay. And so began a wonderful relationship.

Martin McKee

New to Canada, Martin McKee had the drive of someone determined to make his mark on his new country. He formed Martin McKee Construction in 1987 and started his one-man home building company. It was a slow market in the late 1980s so Martin had an uphill battle. But from his modest beginnings building two to three houses a year, McKee Homes is now a major home builder, completing just under 200 homes last year alone.

A BIG IMPACT

"Dad had a big impact on the community," says McKee Homes president Elaine McKee Doel. "He believed in integrity, innovation and efficiency, the value of the individual, and quality. We really miss our Martin. He was our dad and our mentor."

Martin McKee passed away in March 2006 and is truly missed by those he left behind. His famous quotes and legacy live on in the hearts and minds not only of his family and his employees, but of his community as well.

"Dad used to say, "If it's not right, it's wrong." There's no shade of grey," says Grace McKee, McKee Homes' chief estimator and senior home planner. "Elaine and I truly believe in that philosophy and know that something can't just be okay. It if isn't right, then it needs to be rectified."

It is this attitude toward not only home building but to the entire community that is Martin's legacy. The City of Airdrie has announced it will be renaming the First Avenue bridge near the company's building the Martin McKee Bridge.

"Dad would have been very humbled by this announcement," Elaine says. "He didn't want the recognition. But he really valued community and was very interested in its future direction."

THE VISION GROWS

It is the direction that his two daughters now follow as they continue to run the company he built and give back to the community that has given them so much.

"We are a family builder in lots more ways than one," said Elaine. "Dad started out with just himself and then he hired my then boyfriend Rob Doel as his first full-time employee in 1988. Our first company truck was a 1965 GMC pickup."

"From these modest beginnings, the company grew based on Martin's core values. In 1989 Martin hired Elaine, and then Grace a few years later.

Today the company has 28 full-time employees and more than 100 trades and suppliers. In the 20 years that McKee Homes has been in Airdire, the company has built 1700 multi-family and single family homes, along with 50 in Red Deer and now 12 a year in Black Diamond.

"It is our mission to craft exceptional homes for our valued customers," says Elaine. “We love to be able to customize homes for people. It's our specialty."

In talking to both Elaine and Grace, it is clear this love of creating a special new home for a family really engages them. And it shows in the new home designs being developed in Reunion, Prairie Springs, Cooper's Crossing and King's Heights.

"I love design. I love creating new home plans," Grace says. "I got my start answering phones for the company and worked my way up, moving into estimating, budgeting and the design of homes. It was definitely from the ground up but now I can't imagine doing anything else."

It is this enthusiasm that drives the company today. Both Elaine and Grace say they want their staff and the company to be a part of something important.

"There are so many people working for us now and although Elaine and I can know where we are going, we have to communicate that," Grace says. "People have to appreciate it and believe in it to be going the same direction you are."

It's been an exciting and fun journey for a company that started as a one-man show 20 years ago, one that Elaine and Grace have enthusiastically embraced. Guided by the personal and corporate values their father Martin instilled in them, and inspired by new technologies and the challenges of building for today's families, Elaine and Grace are committed to ensuring McKee Homes remains a leader in building Airdrie over the next 20 years.