Wilhelm Construction Founded
In 1923, Francis built a concrete porch for his neighbor, starting Wilhelm Construction as a Masonry Contractor. Assisted by his business partner Al Baldwin, Fran's earlier projects focused on building and renovating churches around the Indianapolis area.
Tippy Wilhelm New President
The 1970's brought leadership changes to Wilhelm, as James "Tippy" Wilhelm (son of Francis Wilhelm) took over duties as company president in 1974. Tippy was very forward-thinking in his new role, and even had his entire estimating department create new estimate charts to adjust for technological advances of the time.
Growth and $500M Earnings
The 1990's brought continued growth for F.A. Wilhelm Construction. Wilhelm grew to 1,000 employees and reached $500M in revenue.
Phil Kenney Takes the Lead
In 2001, Phil Kenney stepped into the role previously held by his grandfather and uncle to become president of Wilhelm, continuing the long-standing legacy of exceptional service and community involvement that was established since the firm’s inception. Under Phil's leadership, Wilhelm has grown to become the largest contractor in Indiana.
First Design-Build Project
F.A. Wilhelm Construction worked alongside Axis Architecture to build the first public-sector design-build project in the state of Indiana. The Indiana University Service Building was constructed in eight months, and served as office space for the university architect, engineer, and additional plant functions.
Dives into Water/Wastewater
Wilhelm entered the water/wastewater markets with two heavy civil projects for City of Lafayette Public Works in 2009. The first consisted of four cast-in-place junction chambers that tied for the new CSO tunnel under downtown Lafayette. The second included decommissioning the lift station and final tie-in to the new tunnel.
Milestone Project Win & Growth
F.A. Wilhelm Construction experienced significant growth in 2021, as we reached the $1 Billion mark in revenue. Wilhelm also won its largest dollar amount project to date with the IU Health Academic Health Center in Indianapolis, IN.
Wilhelm Continues to Grow
With the need for more office space to accommodate growing employee numbers, Wilhelm relocated our Steel shop and renovated the existing shop into new office space for our corporate office in Indianapolis, IN.