Instead of selling out, retiring Bellingham businessman sells to his employees

Like an old house, sometimes a business comes due for a new owner. After 62 years in Bellingham, that's the case with A-1 Builders.
Rick Dubrow has owned A-1 for 42 of those 62 years.

Now, it's time to retire.
  
With their children uninterested in taking the reins, Dubrow and his co-owner wife struggled with who should take charge of the business they worked so hard to build.

"What do we do?" asked Dubrow. "Sell it to a stranger who could destroy the legacy, destroy what we've done?"

Those who work for Dubrow consider it like a family, so Dubrow decided to make it an extended-family business.
He created a co-op where the 20 or so workers will get the chance to become part-owners.

"You're taking a person who maybe was 'just a carpenter' working on a particular project and you're giving them a career path," said Dubrow. "So we're helping people who have helped us."

http://www.king5.com/news/local/bellingham/instead-of-selling-out-retiring-bellingham-businessman-sells-to-his-employees/451670202