Kingstowne Community (1987-2005)
October 25, 2023 | W.B. Hopke Co. | Hopke History
For more than 67 years, W.B. Hopke Co. has been a leader in the wet and dry utilities arena. During that timeframe, Hopke has been awarded numerous projects. Some projects stand out more than others and in the late ’80s W.B. Hopke was awarded a project that would have a significant impact on their business for years to come.
Not many companies can attribute a specific client and project for helping launch their company to the next level, but certainly the award in Kingstowne, located in Fairfax County, VA, set the foundation for Hopke’s growth. For the next 25 years, Hopke did almost all the water, sewer and storm work in Kingstowne. This provided Hopke with a solid base of consistent work and opened the doors to numerous other clients and opportunities for larger and more sophisticated projects.
Mike Hopke, owner, was integral in Kingstowne during that time and shared his thoughts about its impact on W.B. Hopke Co. and how it came to be. “The area that is now Kingstowne was vacant land, gravel pits with acres and acres of woods and trees. The property sat idle for years, and then in the early ’80s, Cookie Halle bought the property and wanted to develop it. The Halles bought equipment from a mining operation in Kentucky and used that equipment to help carve out a foundation and grading for roads, home sites and a community.”
Hopke was already doing wet utilities work in the Northern Virginia area and knew that being awarded the project in Kingstowne could lead to long-term work. Said Mike, “I bugged Gerry Halle, continuously for his wet utilities work and he finally gave us our first project in Kingstowne in the late ’80s. After that, we were off and running. We eventually did about 50 contracts for the Halle Companies, all in Kingstowne.”
Today, Kingstowne is a planned community spanning 2.9 miles in length and borders, Springfield, Alexandria and Franconia, Virginia. It has a town center and as of 2020 has a population of 16,825 residents. W.B. Hopke has come a long way since Kingstowne. When they started there, they had 4-5 crews and today they have over 20 crews working projects in Virginia, Washington DC and Maryland.
Contact W.B. Hopke about a career in utility installation and site work at 703-971-0404 or info@wbhopke.com.