Fairbank’s Contracting & Development has never built its geographic reach around a map. The commercial general contractor now works across California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Texas and Georgia, with plans to enter additional East Coast states, but founder and owner Martin Fairbank says expansion has followed a simpler rule: go where established clients need the company. “We don’t go searching to be a contractor in 50 states,” Fairbank said. “We travel with our clients; we go where they ask us to go.”
Thirty years after Fairbank started the business as a one-person operation, that client-led approach has fueled steady growth, with the company reaching more than 220 employees at points throughout its history. Its work now includes turnkey design-build projects, ground-up construction and tenant improvements across fitness, medical, restaurant, retail, industrial, swimming pool and automotive-repair markets. Fitness has become a particularly strong part of the company’s portfolio, with experience delivering both tenant improvements and ground-up facilities. Fairbank’s has maintained a longstanding relationship with EOS Fitness and has also completed projects for Crunch Fitness, alongside work for a diverse range of clients across its other commercial sectors.
The company began from a very different position. A United States Marine Corps veteran, Fairbank initially expected to pursue law, but personal circumstances created an immediate need to earn money. Already involved in real estate to some extent, he moved into construction and built a self-performing business around the trades he knew firsthand. “I did all the trades, so that’s why we self-performed,” he said, recalling work as a framer, mason, drywaller and painter.
A major change came in 2010. Fairbank’s had been experiencing record years when the economic crash hit, but Fairbank chose to remain in construction and reconsider how the business operated. Rather than continuing primarily as a self-performing contractor, the company shifted toward general contractor management and began subcontracting most trades as its projects became larger and more complex.
“In 2010, we decided we were going full on management, and that’s where we have been since,” Fairbank said. “We said, ‘okay, stop looking back, move forward.’ And we’ve grown the company immensely since then.”
Growth did not proceed without interruption. COVID became another defining period in 2020, when Fairbank’s held onto a large workforce for six months before the disruption lasted longer than anticipated. President Aaron Smit said the company ultimately lost employees and then faced the task of rebuilding and retraining its team. “COVID cost us a little bit,” Smit said. “During COVID, we lost some people after hanging on to a large staff for six months, only to find out it would be longer than expected. We lost some people, and then we had to retrain and rebuild. That was a big part of our fluctuation, but we survived it.”
The rebuilding period sits within a much longer pattern of growth. Fairbank points to the company’s evolution from a one-person operation to an established general contractor as one of its major milestones, while the longevity of some employees provides another measure of continuity. A couple of team members have now been with Fairbank’s for more than 25 years. “It seems as though pretty much at all times, we’re always saying we have the best team we’ve ever had,” Smit said. “And I’m sure several weeks from now, I’ll say the same thing. It just keeps getting better.”
Long-standing client relationships have developed alongside the workforce. Fairbank’s has worked with EOS Fitness for around eight years and Ferguson Enterprises for approximately 15, completing projects in states including California, Arizona and Idaho. Some relationships stretch considerably further. “We’ve really focused on clients,” Fairbank said. “A big part of our relationships are 25 or 30 years old, and we maintain them. And most of our newer clients come through the developer on the project, or we were referred to them, so we’re a very referral-based business. We work with the same people over and over. “We like to say we build relationships, and obviously, we’re a builder.”
Repeat work also provides a practical route into larger and more geographically dispersed projects. In Surprise, Arizona, Fairbank’s recently completed a 40,000-square-foot EOS Fitness project near the 303 freeway. Smit described the visibility of the construction as part of what made the assignment memorable, with commuters able to watch the structure take shape. “It’s pretty cool when you’re driving down the road and see these massive structures going up, cranes setting the tilt-up panels and the HVAC units,” he said. “It’s pretty spectacular. We got to build one right off the 303, and everybody that commutes on the 303 got to see our project.”
Fairbank’s is now replicating that work roughly 10 miles south, illustrating how an established client relationship can lead directly to another assignment.
A project for Hope Church demonstrates a different side of the company’s approach. The church had been trying for approximately two years to add an auxiliary building to its property, but progress with its original contractor had stalled. Fairbank’s initially proposed taking over the project, although the church decided to remain with its existing contractor. Six weeks later, with little progress visible, the company reached out again.
“This time we said, ‘let’s just take down all the roadblocks, all the barriers, and figure out how to get this done’ – and we figured it out,” Smit said. “We came to an agreement with the church, and it worked on both sides, so now we’re moving forward with it.”
For Smit, the outcome reflected the value of solving the problem rather than simply pursuing another contract. “It’s been well over two years, and they’re incredibly happy to soon have this project done and completed – very happy with our performance.”
“It’s been well over two years, and they’re incredibly happy to soon have this project done and completed – very happy with our performance.”
Fairbank’s is now preparing for another period of expansion, but leadership describes the process as controlled rather than indiscriminate. Fairbank said the company expects to double in size again over the next 12 months, while growth is planned in Georgia, Texas and California through the remainder of 2026 and into 2027. Smit views that process as a series of moving parts rather than a straight upward line. Client demand, revenue and staffing rarely increase at precisely the same pace, requiring the company to adjust as one outpaces another. “The way growth happens is not everything all at once,” he said. “It’s like here’s your client base and they grow, and then your revenues grow. Then you have to increase your team, then your team grows. And then your revenues drop, but your team grew. And then you have a client that was supposed to do projects, and they backed off for a year, and we pick up new clients. So you got your client side, your revenue, your team, and they all grow at different paces – it’s about keeping control of that.”
Recent activity suggests another step in that cycle is already underway. Smit said business strengthened around the second quarter of 2026 after a slower start to the year, while the company has maintained a packed bid schedule for the past three months. Fairbank’s also expects to complete more simultaneous projects for one particular client this year than ever before and increase that volume again in 2027.
“As they grow, we grow alongside of them,” Smit said.
Three decades after Fairbank built the company around his own ability to perform multiple trades, Fairbank’s operates on a much larger scale and through a fundamentally different delivery model. The thread connecting those stages is not a particular sector or geography, but the relationships that repeatedly create the next opportunity. As existing clients expand and new relationships develop, projects follow, the team grows to support them, and Fairbank’s moves with the work rather than pursuing expansion for its own sake. For a company now preparing to enter more states and add further capacity, controlled growth remains closely tied to the same principle that brought it this far: staying useful to the people who keep calling.
