The Weitz Company started as a small carpentry shop founded in 1855 by an entrepreneurial German immigrant. Among the Des Moines, Iowa building company's first projects were installing windows in the Savery House, building a saloon and saddlery, and putting up fences when business slowed. A four generation family owned business, Weitz ranks as the 31st largest general building contractor in the United States with more than $800 million in annual revenues. The Weitz Company has built virtually every form of project imaginable. With thousands of projects behind it, they range from military installations where the engines of production were four-legged, grain handling facilities in the Middle East, to the most sophisticated of today's high tech manufacturing and biotech research facilities. During the 1980s, the company expanded its horizons by appealing to the national market. Weitz opened offices in Phoenix, and West Palm Beach, Fla. In 1986, the company nearly doubled its operations when it acquired Al Cohen Construction Company in Denver. The Weitz Company has a location in Denver.