Dillingham Construction

In 1902, Walter F. Dillingham founded the Hawaiian Dredging and Construction Co.. In 1912, Walter F. Dillingham purchased 84 acres (34 ha) from the former Bernice P. Bishop Estate, which used the land for property development to create the neighborhood of Waikiki and many of its early related buildings and structures (including the Ala Wai Canal).

Walter's son, Lowell Dillingham, led the company in 1961, overseeing a merger a year earlier between the Hawaiian Dredging and Construction Co. and the Oahu Railway and Land Company in order to form the public Dillingham Corporation. In 1959, the company began construction of one of its largest projects was the $30 million USD Ala Moana Center shopping mall. In the 1960s the company started to expand internationally. Dillingham became a leading engineering and construction firm, building dams, airfields, high-rises, hotels and embassies around the world.

The company was sold to private investors in 1983, for $347 million USD. In 1986, Dillingham's new owners began selling many of the company's subsidiaries in order to relieve its debt load. Lowell Dillingham died in 1987. In 1988, the Dillingham Construction company moved the headquarters from San Francisco, to Pleasanton, California.

Controversy

The company had a series of issues in the county of San Francisco in the 1970s, and the county of Los Angeles in the early 2000s; with claims of over-billing, poor construction, onsite racism, and misrepresentation of minority involvement. From 2000 until 2003, the company had a series of litigation and debt issues, which culminated into filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2003.