The Kenoyer name has been part of Bellingham for generations, long before it appeared on a sign. Jess Kenoyer and his brother Jeff built homes across this community, work rooted in the belief that a place is only as strong as what you're willing to build into it. That belief carried forward through Chet, who built a real estate career on the same values, becoming one of Whatcom County's most established agents over more than 40 years, and through his daughter Gina, who has sold alongside him for many years, and her husband Ford, who recently joined the family business.
Seven years ago, the family's building legacy found its way back to the surface. Jess Kenoyer, grandson and namesake of the man who started it all, began quietly leading Kenoyer Development, building and stewarding homes and properties across Bellingham in partnership with Kenoyer Real Estate. Today, the Kenoyers are still doing what they've always done: selling homes, building homes, and investing in the community they've never stopped calling home.
Bellingham has been part of the Kenoyer story since the beginning. Jess Kenoyer and his brother Jeff built and developed homes across this community, work rooted in the same neighborhoods their family still calls home today. Long before any sign went up, they were part of shaping what Bellingham looks like, one home at a time.
Chet Kenoyer grew up watching the work of his family take shape, and made his own life here. For more than four decades, he has sold homes across Whatcom County. He has been the top-selling agent here every year, a distinction earned one relationship at a time. What has stayed constant through all those years is a simple approach: know the community, know the market, and treat every sale like it's personal, because to him, it is.
Chet's children grew up around the work, and in time, found their own place in it. Gina Kenoyer Harris and her brother Jess joined their father on the real estate team, learning the business the way Chet had always worked it: one relationship at a time. It was the natural next step for a family that had already spent a generation showing up for this community.
After years on the real estate team, Jess found himself drawn to the other side of the family story, the side that started it all. He stepped away from sales and turned toward building, and for the past seven years has led what is now Kenoyer Development. The company builds and stewards homes. In many ways, Jess was returning to where the family began: his grandfather and namesake built and developed in this same community, decades before Jess was born to carry the name forward.
Today, Kenoyer Real Estate and Kenoyer Development operate under one roof, two sides of the same family story standing side by side. That story now has a physical home of its own: the restored 1929 Fairhaven Pharmacy building, part of Fairhaven's National Register of Historic Places district. Taking on its restoration was not a small decision. It meant caring for a piece of Bellingham's history the same way this family has always cared for the people in it.
This chapter includes a new addition. Ford Harris, Gina's husband, has joined the team, bringing nearly two decades of business development experience and an MBA from the University of Washington into a family business built on relationships. His arrival is not a departure from what the Kenoyers have built. It is a continuation of it, another person choosing to invest his career in this community's future. From two brothers building homes, to a father selling them, to his children carrying both sides forward, to a building restored and a family reunited under one name: this is simply the next step in a family that has never stopped showing up for Bellingham.
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1115 HARRIS AVE BELLINGHAM, WA 98225
1115 HARRIS AVE BELLINGHAM, WA 98225
