HALL-IRWIN HISTORY

Thanks to George W. Hall and Hale Irwin Sr., we have an amazingly resilient company with a solid backbone built on honesty, integrity, dedication, and hard work.

1963

George and Hale met in 1958 while working at Hugh Phillips Construction in Greeley. They were both superintendents building houses. As they continued their construction career they realized they both had the same problem – finding a pipe crew that could stay ahead of their construction schedule. So in August of 1963 they decided to start a pipeline company named Hall-Irwin Construction Company, with the determination to be the best pipeline company in Colorado.  George and Hale started the company with the help of two investors, and guaranteed that in 30 months they would buy back their share at book value. In fact, Hall-Irwin was so successful that they tripled the stockholders money in those 30 months! 

So how did Hall-Irwin get its name? Well, a good friend of George and Hale told them, “If you have faith in your business, you should stand behind it and put your name on it.” With that advice, they took both of their last names and created Hall-Irwin Construction Company. Hale handled operations in the field and George managed the business operations, finances, and estimating.

1974

Hall-Irwin began with only a few employees. However, they quickly grew to nearly 100 workers just in the pipeline crew. In the 1960’s, they brought in the largest excavator that Greeley had ever seen railed in by train, a Northwest excavator that only used hydraulics to operate the stick and bucket, the rest was powered by chains and cables. In 1968, Hall-Irwin added more services including curb and gutters, plumbing, heating, and even building custom homes up until the mid 70’s.

Then in 1974, Hale Irwin Jr.’s golfing career took off, and Hale Irwin Sr. decided to retire from the construction business so that he could tour with his son. At this time, he asked George to buy him out, and George agreed.  That same year, Hale Irwin Jr. won his first U.S. Open.

1983

The company launched into the aggregate business in the mid-1980’s.  They found it difficult to find quality aggregate at the right price for their pipeline projects, so they bought a farm from Renoyld Herbst and started mining aggregate on that land. While mining, the pits filled up continually with groundwater. Due to evaporation, they either had to pay for the loss of water, use augmentation, fill the pits with dirt, or find a way to otherwise keep the groundwater out.  So in 1985, Hall-Irwin built the first slurry wall around a gravel pit (the Herbst Pit).  This marked the first slurry wall to be constructed around a gravel pit in North America; some say it was the first in the world, but George is a bit skeptical of that fact.

By 1983, George’s son, Bret Hall had joined the family business and continued Hall-Irwin’s growth. Bret worked at the company throughout high school and college, doing earthwork along with the hard manual labor of laying pipe. In 1980, after graduating from CSU with a degree in Construction Management, Bret began working at Hall-Irwin full-time. In the following years, he worked as a superintendent, project manager, and estimator, before eventually becoming our Chief Operating Officer.

1997

Hall-Irwin’s services continued to expand into the 90’s, by which point we had begun self-performing landscaping and asphalt paving, even purchasing an asphalt plant to supplement this endeavor.

2000

With a very talented staff on board, we decided that we had the capacity to expand even further, and in the year 2000, Hall-Irwin became a general contractor, and added vertical construction to our range of services.

2010

In 2005, we built our current headquarters in Milliken, CO with over 200 people working for Hall-Irwin. The economic down-turn of 2008 meant it was time to reevaluate our business model and redefine ourselves. We eliminated our pipeline, landscape, and asphalt self-work, which allowed us to focus on vertical construction, water storage, and land development projects. By 2010, we were well underway with many new vertical construction projects along the Front Range.

2018

The business has continued to grow with George W. Hall’s values deeply instilled in all that we do. The company is now a leader in vertical construction, having successfully constructed several large scale mixed-use and hospitality projects. 55 years later, we all hold to the same values of opportunity, innovation, and quality that the company was founded upon. George comes into the office every weekday and addresses everyone at the office by name. Thanks to our founder’s vision and values, we’re stronger and move capable than ever.