Balling family marks centennial of Fairchance Construction
Fairchance Construction Co. CEO James Balling (left) and his son Edward Balling, current company president, stand in front of their office on a recent day. The company is celebrating their 100th anniversary in business. Fairchance construction company started in 1916 and has remained family-owned and operated to this day in its fourth generation of ownership.
Sam is the Fairchance Construction Co. office cat. He was rescued about a year ago and nursed from infancy and now stays at the office.
Aerial view of the Fairchance Construction Co. office and yard area circa 1960.
In one way, a century-old family-run business hasn’t gone far from its roots in Fairchance where its offices still are found in a 135-year-old building along South Morgantown Street.
In others, however, Fairchance Construction Co. has gone far from the lumber company a group of partners incorporated on Feb. 12, 1916 in Fayette County.
“We’ve worked in Oklahoma,” company CEO and treasurer James G. Balling said, “and did jobs in the Bahamas, Georgia, Kentucky … “
“… Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and South Carolina,” said James’ son and company president, Edward V. Balling, representing the fourth generation of Balling family ownership.
“My grandfather (M. T. Balling Sr.) started it with a couple associates of his,” said James. “He went into all sorts of construction. He built a lot of homes, entire company towns for the coal industry, and schools,” from Apollo to Bethel Park and Shaler Township to Fairchance itself.
“We also were in construction management and oversaw a lot of projects for Albert Gallatin School District,” James said.
“We also were manager for some Uniontown schools,” Edward said.
It has grown to where the volume approaches $50 million a year.
“We’re approximately 40 (employees) at the moment,” Edward said.
The company also works with a lot of subcontractors, according to James.
But visitors to 75 S. Morgantown St. in Fairchance are as likely to run into an English bulldog or a year-old cat as they are to encounter a subcontractor.
Edward said he brings the dog in sometimes, though not on the day Sam the cat was curious enough to climb over a reporter interviewing Edward and his father in the conference room.
“We rescued him,” Edward recalled. “He was nursed from infancy about a year ago.”
The conference room once was used for storage, in a building first erected in 1881 alongside a railroad right-of-way on the southern end of Fairchance for the McCormick Lumber Co. In recent years, Fairchance purchased that right-of-way.
“We were paying rent (to B&O railroad and its successors) because we built an office on it,” James said.
As late as 1993, James said, “we still had people coming in looking for (wood) paneling. We had gotten out of the retail lumber business in the 1970s. People would just stop in, thinking we had a showroom.”
The company is involved in distribution of pre-engineered metal building systems for Butler Manufacturing Co. The company is a dealership for Butler Manufacturing in Fayette, Washington and Greene counties.
Fairchance Construction comes to mind for other reasons these days. The company’s centennial was celebrated recently at the Hilton Garden Inn in South Union Township — the first of two Hilton hotels in which the company is investing. It opened Jan. 28.
“We partnered with the landowner (Synergy Real Estate of Greenock) and developed that property,” Edward said.
“We put the investment group together, predominantly with local business people,” James said.
“We have another (Hilton Garden Inn) going up in the Moon Township area near Pittsburgh International Airport,” Edward said. “We expect to have that open by the summer of 2017.”
James Balling said the most recent work done was for Calfrac Well Services in nearby Smithfield. Edward Balling said it was a $15 million project.
Other recent projects include a modernization of public housing in McKeesport. On Sept. 9, 2015, the new Yester Square development was dedicated in McKeesport Housing Authority’s Crawford Village.
Fairchance Construction was the contractor for a project that took eight years to complete, replacing 204 barracks-style units built as temporary housing decades ago with 68 energy-efficient apartments, all of which can accommodate wheelchairs, while 24 meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards.
MHA executive director Stephen Bucklew said tax credits covered 58 units, while 10 others were built with capital funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
According to a history provided by Fairchance Construction, M.T. Balling Sr. was president of the company from 1916 until 1947, during which company projects included schools and the Michael Berkowitz Shirt Factory in Uniontown. During World War II, the company secured several contracts from the state governments in West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina as well as Pennsylvania.
From 1947 until 1973 M.T.’s eldest son, M.T. Balling Jr., also known as Tom, was company president and oversaw the expansion of operations into institutional, commercial and industrial construction, as well as a phasing out of the home construction business. Tom’s brother, Wayne G. Balling, succeeded his elder sibling as president from 1973 until 1988, then Tom’s son M.T. Balling III became president until 2006.
Continuing the third generation of Ballings in charge was James in 2005, followed by his son, Edward, in 2008. The younger Balling said the fifth generation is coming — he had a son born five months ago.
In the history issued for its 100th anniversary celebration, Fairchance Construction said it “established a reputation for performance and quality construction on competitive bid projects as well as negotiated cost-plus, fixed price and construction management contracts.”