HB Construction Celebrates 20th Year in Business
From schools to fire stations and countless other buildings, HB Construction has continued to stay at the forefront of commercial construction, building over 1.6 million square feet of commercial construction throughout New Mexico since opening for business more than 20 years ago.
Celebrating its 20th year in operation as of June 2011, HB Construction held an educational lecture entitled: Advances in Building Envelope Science where Scott “Spiderman” Mulholland, an industry leading expert in building envelope science, covered topics such as water intrusion and dust intrusion for a crowd of local architects and business owners.
“For our [HB Construction’s] anniversary we wanted to do something special for our industry partners and clients and the lecture by ‘Spiderman’ really gave some valuable insight into one of the industry’s trending topics,” said President and CEO of HB Construction Jason W. Harrington.
June also marked the company’s completion of the $36 million Taos County Judicial Complex, a project which integrated new cost-saving services and highlighted just a few of the many changes HB has made since the company’s humble beginnings more than 20 years ago.
The Early Years
Founded in 1991 by former President and CEO Ken Harrington, HB Construction, which stands for Harrington/Brown Construction, started out with only three employees, Ken Harrington, his son Jason W. Harrington and Chief Operating Officer Mike Brown. All three shared a small one-room office and worked side by side on job sites for the company’s first few years.
Today, the company’s staff members work out of a new state-of-the-art 10,000-square-foot headquarters, completed in 2010, and Ken Harrington has since retired, leaving the day-to-day operations of the business to Jason W. Harrington, Brown and Chief Financial Officer Adam B. Harrington.
With revenues staying steady for the past five years, HB Construction hasn’t seen the big drops in revenue other construction firms have during the economic downturn.
Steady Growth
HB Construction’s steady stream of construction projects combined with a multi-talented staff of mostly second and third generation construction professionals has made for a company which has been able to withstand the test of time.
“We’ve had steady growth over the years and added staff as we needed them… the real growth has been from our existing employees’ desire to take on a larger volume of complex projects. It’s made a big difference in the success of the company.” said President and CEO of HB Construction Jason W. Harrington.
Keeping pace with HB Construction’s steady growth has been the company’s community involvement, which has steadily increased via company initiatives and employee involvement.
Local Support
As a locally-owned company, HB Construction has built a tradition of supporting local businesses and its community involvement spans far beyond the business aspect of the company.
“For us, being community leaders is just as important as being leaders in our industry,” said President and CEO of HB Construction Jason W. Harrington, as he spoke about HB Construction’s variety of community initiatives.
Chosen by votes from local subcontractors and suppliers, HB was recently named the 2011 General Contractor of the Year by the American Subcontractors Association of New Mexico, based on criteria such as ethics and support of local subcontractors and vendors.
“It’s such an honor to have been chosen for the award by people we have a lot of respect for, it really made the award something special," said President and CEO of HB Construction Jason W. Harrington while talking about the company’s strong relationships with local businesses.
However, it isn’t just the company’s relationship with local businesses, but HB’s continued support for the community at large. “One of HB’s greatest achievements is the impact we’ve made on emergency response. Our clothing and food drives have made a big impact for families throughout New Mexico,” said CFO Adam B. Harrington, who is also currently serving as the Board President for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central New Mexico.
Along with the company’s strong community involvement, the company’s constant innovation has served as another key component to HB Construction’s success.
What’s next?
With their first 20 years now behind them, HB Construction is looking towards a bright future with its new headquarters, cutting edge company-wide technology upgrades, a new company website and the addition of new staff members.
“We’re excited about the future, we have a great core group with big ideas and ambition and I really believe the sky is the limit for this company,” said President and CEO Jason W. Harrington.
As construction industry reports project growth in the nonresidential construction sector over the next few years, HB Construction has already begun making some big plans for the future.
“We’re always looking for ways to improve, we put a lot of time into research to ensure our clients are getting the very best quality service and value for their money,” said President and CEO Jason W. Harrington. “Our added value services such as our in-house Building Information Modeling (BIM) have had a big impact on recent projects and we’ve gotten a lot of good feedback.”
So even in an uncertain climate of intense competition and strained budgets, HB Construction has continued to survive and thrive, through even the toughest times, and is well on its way to making it’s next 20 years just as memorable as it’s first.