Construction companies in Colorado: 20,473 contractors, the public builders and how licensing works

This report is for anyone looking at construction companies across Colorado: owners and developers hiring outside their own city, firms looking for partners or acquisitions, job seekers, and B2B sellers planning a statewide territory. It covers the Census count, where the firms are, the public companies, what's being permitted and how licensing works.

Colorado construction by the numbers

US Census Bureau County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, construction sector (NAICS 23), State of Colorado:

Within the top band, 177 establishments have 100 to 249 employees, 42 have 250 to 499, 9 have 500 to 999 and 5 have 1,000 or more. CBP counts establishments (locations) with paid employees, not companies, and excludes self-employed contractors, so the many one-person builders and handymen in resort towns aren't counted.

Front Range and the mountains

Greeley, in Weld County, has firms twice the size of Colorado Springs' on average: its 1,204 establishments employ 17,461 people. The resort micro areas around Vail (Edwards), Breckenridge and Steamboat Springs have hundreds of contractors averaging three to five employees. By county, Jefferson (2,099), El Paso (1,997), Arapahoe (1,981) and Adams (1,871) have the most establishments; Arapahoe and Adams have the most employees, at 24,666 and 24,532.

Heavy civil and utility crews

US averages are calculated from the CBP 2023 state files summed across all states; the Census Bureau marks Colorado's heavy civil, utility, water and sewer, and power line employee counts as moderate noise (changed by 2% to 5% for confidentiality). Colorado's utility contractors run far larger than the national average, which fits a state whose largest public contractor, MYR Group, builds electric lines. Roofing firms are numerous (4.5% of establishments, against 3.1% nationally) but small.

Public construction companies headquartered in Colorado

Figures are company-wide from each company's latest Form 10-K; most of the revenue is earned outside Colorado. Large private Colorado contractors don't publish results and aren't shown.

Permits: apartments up, houses down

Total units rose 4.4%, but the mix moved sharply: single-family fell 14.7% while units in buildings of five or more rose 43.4%. Production-home trades had fewer starts in 2025; structural concrete, elevator, fire sprinkler and mechanical contractors on apartment projects had more.

Licensing: local first, state for trades

General contractor licensing is set locally, and Denver is the clearest example:

• Denver Contractor Licensing licenses "individuals and companies who perform various types of construction and trade work in Denver." A supervisor certificate, held by the owner or an employee, is the first step to a license.
• "Denver does not accept or reciprocate contractor licenses and/or certificates from other counties or states," so a firm licensed in Aurora or Colorado Springs still needs a Denver license to work there.
• "A Colorado electrical or plumbing license will substitute for a supervisor certificate," and plumbers renew state contractor and master plumber cards with the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA).
• For state highway work, CDOT says general contractors "must be prequalified prior to submitting a bid"; subcontractors don't need to be.

Before you hire anywhere in Colorado:

1. Ask which city or county licenses the contractor and check it in that jurisdiction's search (Denver has an online contractor license search).
2. Check the electrician's and plumber's state licenses with DORA.
3. Ask for recent permits for similar work in the same jurisdiction.
4. Get certificates of insurance and lien waivers at each payment.

Prospecting a Colorado territory

1. Start on the Front Range. Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Greeley and Boulder hold 14,671 of the state's 20,473 establishments.
2. Treat the mountains as a separate market. Resort contractors are small, owner-run and seasonal; they buy in the shoulder seasons, not in July.
3. Use CDOT's prequalified list for heavy civil. It gives each general prime contractor's work codes, prequalification expiry and the maximum dollar amount it's prequalified to bid, which is a capacity signal you won't find elsewhere.
4. Match the contact to size. Owners decide at 18,700 establishments; the 1,773 with 20 or more employees add controllers, estimators and operations managers. Our prospect list guide covers the mechanics.

Illustrative example. The firm, fees and rates are invented; the counts are CBP 2023.

Summit Ledger Advisors (summitledger.example) provides outsourced controller and job-costing services to contractors. Its targets are Colorado's 1,540 establishments with 20 to 99 employees, the size where an owner has outgrown a bookkeeper but not yet hired a CFO. It assumes 30% are standalone companies without an in-house controller, about 462 firms, worth $48,000 a year each. Winning 25 clients is $1.2 million a year. Finding which of them just grew past that point is the slow part; Bebop researches each company and explains why it fits.

Statewide sources for names

For other Colorado industries, see companies in Colorado; for the metro, see Denver construction companies.

Next step: turn these segments into a list with the construction companies industry guide.