Est. 1997 — Houston, Texas
An operator's company
Founded by a field engineer. Run by builders. Twenty-nine years, 620 projects, and a safety record owners screen for before they read anything else.
The company
Started with one tilt-wall crew and a borrowed crane
Elena Vasquez founded Ironvale in 1997 in an East End shop, after eight years as a field engineer on Gulf Coast heavy civil work. First contract: a 14,000 SF warehouse shell in Pasadena. The client from that job has since signed eleven more.
Growth came from repeat clients, not acquisition. The rule set hasn't changed: self-perform the concrete, put a real superintendent on every job, price the work like the number is a promise — because on our contracts, it is. That discipline carried Ironvale from warehouse shells to $41M data center shells and 8,400 SF custom homes without changing how a Tuesday on site actually runs.
Today: 214 employees, offices in Houston and Fort Worth, and field leadership living in every metro we serve.
See the recordSafety
The number owners check first
0.68Experience modification rate
Safety isn't a poster in the trailer. It's the reason our insurance costs less than our competitors' — a saving that shows up in every bid we submit.
An EMR of 0.68 means our workers' comp claims run 32% below the industry baseline. Commercial owners prequalify on this number before they look at a portfolio, and it has never disqualified us.
- Every morning
- Crew-level pre-task plans, signed before work starts
- Every worker
- Stop-work authority — ours or a trade partner's, no questions asked
- Every quarter
- Third-party site audits, results shared with clients on request
- Every superintendent
- OSHA 30, first aid/CPR, and annual competent-person training
Leadership
Builders, not brokers
Combined 97 years in the field. Every one of them still walks jobs weekly.
Elena Vasquez
Founder & PresidentFounded Ironvale in 1997 after eight years as a field engineer on Gulf Coast heavy civil work. Still signs every GMP the company issues.
Marcus Boone
VP, Field OperationsThirty years in the field, twenty-one at Ironvale. Built the superintendent bench that ran 1.4M hours without a lost-time incident.
Priya Natarajan
VP, Preconstruction & Estimating$1.2B estimated over fifteen years. Built the preconstruction model that holds GMP-to-closeout variance to 2.1%.
Dale Kirkendall
Director of SafetyCHST, OSHA 500 instructor. Owns the 0.68 EMR — and the authority to stop any job in the company, any time.
Milestones
Twenty-nine years,
one direction
- 1997
Founded in a Houston East End shop with one tilt-wall crew and a borrowed crane.
- 2004
First $5M+ contract — a 120,000 SF distribution shell in Baytown, delivered three weeks early.
- 2009
Bonding capacity reaches $25M single-project through the downturn, without a layoff.
- 2013
Dallas–Fort Worth office opens in Fort Worth with a five-person field team.
- 2016
Residential division launches — custom homes and structural remodels under commercial controls.
- 2021
1.4 million consecutive man-hours without a lost-time incident; EMR reaches 0.68.
- 2026
620th project delivered. $840M built. Bonding capacity now $60M single / $150M aggregate.
Credentials
Licensed, insured, bonded — in writing
Texas licenses trades, not general contractors. So judge a GC the way sureties do: by paper. Ours is below; verification letters go out same-day on request.
- Bonding capacity
- $60M single project · $150M aggregate — A-rated surety, letter on request
- General liability
- $2M per occurrence · $4M aggregate
- Umbrella
- $25M excess liability
- Workers' compensation
- Statutory limits · EMR 0.68 · zero uninsured workers on our sites
- Builder's risk
- Placed per project to full contract value
- Municipal registrations
- Houston · Dallas · Fort Worth · Austin · San Antonio · Waco · Corpus Christi, plus every jurisdiction we build in
- Trade licensure
- Electrical, plumbing, and HVAC performed by state-licensed trade partners (TDLR / TSBPE) under Ironvale supervision
- Memberships
- AGC of Texas · ABC Greater Houston · TEXO
- Prequalification
- ISNetworld and Avetta current for industrial clients
Work with us