Vilbig Brother’s Construction – Est. 1886

Vilbig Brother’s Construction was founded in Dallas in 1886 by John and August Vilbig. An article in the January 1920 edition of Earth Mover Magazine (available here as a free e-book) titled “Glimpses of Dallas Contractors” describes Vilbig Brother’s projects and equipment. In addition, the magazine showcases pictures from notable projects in the city. The cover of this edition includes a picture of the Proctor & Gamble Foundation Work that was once located on S. Lamar & Loomis Street.

The magazine mentions:
“Vilbig Bros. have secured a nice contract for excavating the basement of the new Federal Reserve Bank Building at Dallas. There are about 25,000 cubic yards of material to be moved on this contract. They have two small revolving shovels on the job, loading the direct into Western Dump wagons and trucks.”

Our family has a collection of photographs from the early 1900s of a variety of construction projects around the city. We have scanned a few of these photographs to illustrate the history of Dallas construction. Click here to view the gallery of images and descriptions.

What Keeps Dallas’ small business owners up at night?

Last week, David A. Vilbig P.E., R.P.L.S. attended a luncheon with the Dallas Business Journal and Bank of America focusing on small businesses and their struggles in the current economy.

The hot topics discussed include:

“Will clients pay on time? If not, what recourse is there?
What effect will new health care legislation have?
If business grows, expands and invests, will it get hit with new regulations that kill the business?”

David Vilbig, Rick Ortiz, president and CEO of the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Lee McKinney, assistant director of the Dallas Economic Development Department and Alicia Fannon, vice president of Accion Texas Inc. are quoted in the article by the Dallas Business Journal. Below is the excerpt quoting David Vilbig.

“David Vilbig, manager at Vilbig & Associates, said many business owners struggle to make a profit.

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’ve seen a lot of ups and downs and this is the longest one I’ve ever seen,” Vilbig said. “Everybody I talk to is having the same thing: Are you busy? Yes. Are you making any money? No.”

Vilbig and others said one of the biggest challenges is getting clients to pay. Many companies delay paying, which causes a chain reaction down the line for others.

“If you don’t get paid by one of your clients, they know there’s nothing you can do about it,” Vilbig said. “I only deal with people that I know I’m going to get paid.”

For the full article see the Dallas Business Journal website.