How Hoar Was Built
From our family-focused beginnings to making our mark across the country, reconstruct 80 years of Hoar Construction with us.
LET'S
GO
1940s
No DNA Test Needed
Pre-Preconstruction
We quickly earned a reputation for high-quality construction, most notably in the community church sector, where we built 45 Alabama churches.
1950s
In 1940, Friend Reed Hoar and his wife, Wilma, founded a construction company in Birmingham, Alabama. After their son Richard joined them in business, they incorporated the company as F. R. Hoar and Sons, Inc., General Contractors.
When Richard joined the family business, he’d already enjoyed a successful career in construction on his own as an accomplished architect working for Woolworth’s in Atlanta. This valuable perspective on the design phase of construction no doubt positively informed our early client experience, and it still drives our preconstruction process today.
Changing of the Guard
Following F.R. Hoar’s passing, Richard became president and Wilma stayed on as treasurer.
New Fangled Building
Along with Richard, Bob Burton and Virgil “V.C.” Carlton Handy established the company culture of continually striving to serve our clients, and expanded the business to other sectors, including a new type of construction — indoor shopping malls.
Building the Eastwood Mall was a bold move that established us as a pioneer in the retail sector. The story goes that Mr. Hoar turned white as a sheet while signing the contract, but it was a venture that doubled the annual revenue of the company. Eastwood Mall ultimately cost $5 million dollars and was the world’s fifth enclosed, air-conditioned shopping center.
1960s
With the changing market in America, we discovered a need for a new kind of construction. Enter one of our milestone projects: Mountain Brook Office Park. The first suburban office park in the country, it provided companies a location option away from densely occupied metro areas, while giving employees ample free parking and green spaces
1970s
The Kids are Alright
In 1971, we awarded our first scholarship to foster the next generation of builders.
Planting Roots
We expanded to projects across the Southeast, including Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, and North Carolina.
We completed our first major healthcare project, the $6.5 million-dollar Brookwood Ambulatory Care Center. Housing an emergency treatment area, physicians’ offices, and a motel for outpatients and their families, it was billed as a “total new concept in healthcare.”
1980s
In 1985, we changed our name to Hoar Construction, Inc. to reflect how clients and partners already referred to us. The decade introduced the first Burton leadership in the company, another family tradition that continues to this day.
Passing the Torch
Begin Again, Again
In 1989, a savings and loan crisis significantly impacted retail business. “Clients we respected and had worked with for many years declared bankruptcy, many of them owing us money,” recalled Rob Burton. “We really learned how to run a construction company because the industry was on its heels. We had to reinvent the company and, in many ways, start over.”
The Times They Are A Changing
Retail and commercial construction has always been a big part of our business, and the relationships we’ve built with those clients are a testament to how we strive to deliver value, whether that’s for budget, schedule, quality, or dedication. Bellevue Center in Nashville, Tennessee was one such project for us. The original mall, built in the 1980s, was billed as “Nashville’s Retail Jewel” and served West Nashville for many years.
But in 2016 we were given the opportunity to redevelop the two-story mall into a 348,000 square-foot retail mixed-use development, One Bellevue Place, to better serve the modern community. This design-build project involved collaboration between our team, architects, engineers, and trade partners to meet the variety of needs for the owners and different national tenants.
1990s
Step It Up
In 1996, we received our first S.T.E.P. award, the highest-level honor for Safety from the Associated Builders and Contractors — and we’ve received this award every year since.
Striking Oil and Magic
We tapped into the Texas market with our division in Houston and entered the entertainment sector with our office in Orlando. We also created our program management division, HPM.
Amusement parks were our exciting debut into the entertainment sector. We started by constructing themed areas and buildings that house rollercoasters, and those client relationships are ongoing today.
2000s
Future Looks Bright
As the company celebrated 60 years, we re-established our purpose, our goals, and our core values:
• Treat people the way you want to be treated.
• We are a family-oriented company.
• We believe in the relentless pursuit of improvement.
• By looking after our client, their money, and their product, we are looking after our company, our history, and our future.
Money, Meet Mouth
In 2004, the Hoar Foundation was created to support those charities that further our core values in the communities we serve. We continue to donate funds and volunteer time each year.
Here We Grow Again
We opened our Tennessee division office in Nashville and began working with the federal government, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Corps of Engineers, and the General Services Administration.
Safety First
Our safety program is recognized as the best in the country. Fittingly, it started with family. “I took my then-8-year-old son to a jobsite one day [and] I found that I was worried sick about his safety,” Rob Burton said. “I realized that we had to have a much better program for safety so our jobsites would be safe for our workers … So safe we would put our own children on the job.”
Making Mom Proud
Some of our major accolades from the decade include:
• Our first National Eagle Award from Associated Builders and Contractors
• General Contractor of the Year by the Alabama Association of Subcontractors
• #1 Best Large Company to Work For in Birmingham by the Birmingham Business Journal
• #5 Top Company to Work for in America by the Society for Human Resource Management.
The Granite Westchase II office in Houston was our first LEED-certified project. The 14-story building is wrapped in a 100% glass curtain wall featuring eight different types of glass. We focused on limiting water intrusion in a 110-mph wind zone and it worked; when Hurricane Ike struck, not one pane of glass leaked.
2010s
Netflix and Build
One of the more exciting parts of being a major retail builder since the 1960s is seeing the transformation and adaptive reuse of some of our older projects. This took an entertaining turn of events when the Netflix series Stranger Things set their third season onsite at Gwinnett Place Mall, a project we built in the early 1980s.
Sharing is Caring
Instead of spending money on warranty callbacks, we began spending money on training. Our warranty costs were previously average for our industry, and now they are zero. We’ve shared this program with other companies, allowing them to copy our processes, to hopefully improve the industry we love.
Celebration Worthy
Moving On Up
To meet our employee and customer needs, we opened offices in Austin, Atlanta, and Washington D.C.
Some of our major accolades from the decade include:
• Diamond ABC National STEP Award, representing 20 years of safety achievements
• Gold ABC Alabama Safe Day Award by the ABC’s Alabama Chapter.
• Innovation in Safety Award by the ABC’s Alabama Chapter
• Company of the Year by Construction Dive
• Ranked in Top 100 Contractors list by Engineering News-Record
• Named Accredited Quality Contractor by ABC
Our use of technology, ingenuity, and attention to detail are visible on the face of the Benjamin Russell Hospital for Children, but the reason we love what we do is behind the walls. During construction, our crew painted on the beams and surfaces the names of many of the young patients being treated. The names aren’t visible now, but they are a reminder of how important it is that we do our job the right way, the first time.
Always in Process
As we enter our 80th year in construction, we’re committed to improving the construction experience for our clients based on what we’ve learned from decades of business. The future of construction is efficient, innovative, workflow-driven — where the client, contractor, and partners all work together to deliver the very best building experience possible.
2020
LEARN ABOUT OUR PROCESS
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