A Halt to the Element Hotel - Marshall Fire

In 2017, Hall-Irwin was contracted by Glacier Hotels to build the Element by Westin hotel at 1 Marshall Road in Superior, CO. We constructed this 4-level, LEED certified hotel located just off the Boulder Turnpike/Hwy 36, which became a popular stop for businesspeople and tourists alike. This was such an exciting project for the community that it was mentioned on Superior’s website: https://downtownsuperior.com/element-hotel-construction-downtown-superior/.

Completed Element Hotel side seen from the Boulder Turnpike 2021

On December 30, 2021, however, the operations of this beautiful hotel came to a sudden halt, when it was completely incinerated by Colorado's most destructive wildfire ever, the Marshall Fire. The fire was named after its origination point* on Marshall Road nearly four miles west of the hotel, at the intersection with State Highway 93. Fueled by wind gusts up to 115 mph, the fire blasted through over 6,000 acres in just a few hours, destroying over 1,000 homes and businesses, and causing over $510 million in damages. Entire subdivisions were reduced to unrecoverable rubble, as was the Element Hotel. The fire was finally extinguished with the help of heavy snowfall on New Year’s Eve (the storm which caused the previous day’s extreme winds). Although the snow came as a much-needed relief from the fire, it made search and rescue missions that much more difficult, as crews had to trudge through a foot of snow over still-burning embers.

Demolition of the remains of the Element will take place in March, 2022 and plans to rebuild are underway.

*As of publication of this, the Marshall Fire's cause is still under investigation.

2021 Project Starts and Project Completions

To start off the New Year, let's take a look back and remember what all has happened in 2021. Hall-Irwin started 7 new projects and completed 9 projects with several being multi-year projects.

We began Southgate in 2019, and it finished this last year. This was a residential infrastructure project for Meritage Homes. Brighton will welcome a new subdivision that will home multi-family duplexes. The project consisted of 3 phases and a total of 138 lots. We did over-ex, wet utilities, concrete curb/gutter/alleys, and asphalt paved roads.

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Park Ridge began in early 2020 and was completed in 2021. Park ridge was a residential infrastructure project located in the City of Arvada. Hall-Irwin worked for the developer Leon Capital who is based out of Texas. We delivered duplex's for Meritage and 4 commercial pads for CVS Pharmacy, Kum & Go, a Bank and an undetermined owner. With this project, Hall-Irwin also constructed a median, guardrail and widening of Indiana St. also known as CDOT Highway 92.

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The Kipling Townhome project began in 2020 and was completed in 2021. The owner for this project was with Meritage Homes where we did the land development work for their townhome development located in Denver. We have performed many projects with Meritage and continued strengthening our relationship with this townhome infrastructure project. This project was on 8 acres of land that had an irrigation ditch running in the middle of the project causing the need to divert water around the site. We had to demo an existing home and some trees to begin working onsite.

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We had several small Slurry wall projects that both began construction and completed construction in 2021. They include the O Street Slurry Wall, the Silver Peaks Slurry Wall and the Timnath Slurry Wall.

Orlando, LLC contracted with Hall-Irwin for this Design-Build project at O Street, which resulted in a 4,000-foot long slurry wall at an average 45-foot depth. During the design process, our team helped the owners analyze whether the construction of this wall would be profitable in the long-term. After deciding in the affirmative, Orlando, LLC enlisted the help of Hall-Irwin in the entitlement process before construction could begin. Additionally, we advised that the owners redesign the wall to sit right on the property line, rather than inside of it, which would benefit them with more capacity, and benefit their neighbors, who could then simply tie into the wall. These hurdles successfully navigated, we proceeded with building what is now a fully leak-proof slurry wall which will be useful to store water for years to come.

In their efforts to begin construction on a new subdivision, Forestar Real Estate Group ran into a hiccup when it was discovered that their detention pond at Silver Peaks was infiltrating the water of the FreiCo Ditch. Hall-Irwin was called upon to help mitigate this situation, which, after some schedule modifications, we were able to accomplish in just two weeks of work. This was a brief and small project, but it facilitated a mutually beneficial relationship and gave our team even more valuable experience.

In 2021, the State of Colorado got in touch with the Town of Timnath to inform them that groundwater had been observed seeping into the bottom of one of their detention ponds. As they were required to remedy this situation immediately, Timnath, through their management company Catalyst, contacted Hall-Irwin for help. We gladly stepped in and sealed off the detention pond for them. Additionally, the Town wanted an augmentation pond installed, to make way for the future Timnath Landing subdivision. Hall-Irwin agreed to install a slurry wall around this pond and seal it off down to bedrock. We helped value-engineer the project for them, and used cement-stabilized soil bentonite for the wall. The soil around the slurry wall turned out not to be stable enough to support the heavy equipment necessary to construct a slurry wall, so large crane mats were used throughout the project. In the end, a successful augmentation pond was made possible by our team, and the owner was satisfied with our work, the Timnath Slurry Wall.

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Buffalo Highlands is 165-lot residential development constructed for two home builders located near 96th avenue and Buckley Road in Commerce City, Colorado.

​Over 800,000 yards of dirt containing lignite (combustible sedimentary rock) had to be moved in just 45 days on top of being asked to complete several of the lot sites six months ahead of schedule to accommodate their model homes. We were able to meet this request even though it was presented after the project had started.

​Following site modifications of replacing lignite-contaminated soil with new fill dirt and compacting it to solid ground, the home builders had a prime location to build beautiful single-family homes.

Phases 1-3 on Telluride were completed in 2021 while phases 4-6 were started in 2021.

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Westwood is another one of our multi-phased projects for one of our home builder clients, KB Homes. The 2-phase project will provide site work and infrastructure for a 167-lot subdivision in Thornton, Colorado. The completed infrastructure included earthwork, utilities, water system and storm, curb and gutter, sub-excavation, and paving. Offsite improvements include improvements to E. 152nd, Monaco and Holly Street. Signal Ditch improvements and 4,000 LF of offsite sanitary to an outfall location are also included in the offsite improvements.

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Hall-Irwin started work on a new subdivision, Revere, in the Town of Johnstown in late 2021. The project will have 320 lots with both single-family residences as well as some lots dedicated to the construction of townhomes. The owner of this project is Forestar Group Inc., which is based in Arlington, Texas. There was a good deal of preparatory work to be done, including removing an irrigation ditch that ran through the center of the plot, and extending High Plains Blvd to meet with Co Rd 50 to the north. The owner self-performed the dirt work and dry utilities, leaving the rest to Hall-Irwin’s competent team. We met with the neighboring farmers to ensure lines of communication remained open and relationships were maintained, even contracting with one of them to build one of the necessary concrete structures. One difficulty our team had to navigate was the new book of specifications being written up by the Town of Johnstown, which was not published by the project’s start date. This necessitated extra communication and clarity between us, the engineers, and the Town, to ensure the subdivision would be built to the Town’s satisfaction as well as the owner’s.

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Hall Irwin Corporation has partnered with LGI Homes to develop a community of 141 single family residences called Hidden Creek Subdivision, located in Fredrick, CO. Along with the widening of Ridgeway Boulevard, this project brings with it, a unique set of circumstances, including locating underground utilities and the various ways to work around them in the most cost effective way. Additionally, the scope of this project involves several key plans to insure over excavation of lots and streets, over lot grading of site, water and storm, sanitary install and dry utility sleeving are all recognized and developed accordingly.

In addition, concrete, asphalt and striping were completed in August 2020.

Phases 2 and 3 are slated to be completed in the 3rd quarter of 2022.

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Cottonwood is a residential development project where we completed grading, utilities, concrete flatwork, and asphalt paving. The owner on the job is LGI in which we have continued to have a great relationship on yet another project for them. The project is located in Fort Lupton next to Coyote Creek Golf Course. The one unique item on this project was off-site sanitary sewer work where we had to perform a bore underneath a bridge to tie in the sanitary system.

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Hall-Irwin was contracted by Scout Investments and the United Water District to install a slurry wall for this new reservoir within Martin Marietta Materials’ (MMM) mining site near Milliken. Once the slurry wall is complete and a leak test shows that water is no longer infiltrating the site, Scout Investments will lease the area to MMM, who will mine out the good material. The pond will be filled for future water storage purposes after the site is mined to the approved water retention volume. Our team encountered several hurdles to overcome in the construction of this project, including a dense area of both underground and above-ground utility lines in the south corner, requiring a complex crossing plan and constant coordination with utility providers to protect their lines while allowing for the slurry wall’s construction. Throughout construction, Hall-Irwin ensured MMM’s mining operation could continue uninterrupted, including the use of their conveyor belt, which ran along the full length of the site’s west edge. Early on, we hit very hard bedrock at an elevation higher than expected, so we created an alternative excavation method to deal with this early refusal, which would have inhibited proper slurry wall construction. Once complete, this will be a useful storage site for the owners for years to come.

2021 Addition

Starting in April 2021 Hall-Irwin has had a lot of changes. We decided to move our office back to the city where it all began, Greeley, Colorado. The building that housed Hall-Irwin's headquarters was sold to a school which supplemented Milliken's need for more space with their expanding student population. Shortly after the office move, Hall-Irwin welcomed our new CEO (Chief Executive Officer), Lori Masi, in June. This month, we felt like we needed to launch a website redesign to keep up.

What else happened internally at Hall-Irwin?

We got a new Project Manager!

In the last week of November, Josh Turnwald filled a Project Manager position bringing 11 years of construction expertise with him. Josh's fun fact is that he bungee jumped off of the stratosphere in Las Vegas. Ask him to do it again and he might ask you to buy him a couple of drinks first!

Josh and Tucker

Stay tuned for our blog on our completed projects in 2021 and others we have started!