HAZELWOOD, MO – September 14, 2026 (STL.News) A family-owned St. Louis-area mechanical contractor with roots extending back more than 70 years is preparing for a major expansion in Hazelwood that is expected to bring a $40 million investment, a massive new headquarters and 105 additional jobs to the region.
Jarrell Contracting plans to build a 191,000-square-foot headquarters and operations center in Hazelwood, consolidating administrative offices, fabrication operations, warehousing, employee training and field support at one location.
The Missouri Department of Economic Development announced the expansion Sept. 2, saying the project will create 105 new jobs with an average wage “well above” the St. Louis County average. The department did not disclose the projected average salary in its announcement.
The St. Louis Business Journal subsequently reported the project represents an approximately $40 million investment.
For Hazelwood and the broader St. Louis economy, the project represents more than another corporate office development.
Jarrell is a mechanical contractor whose operations involve skilled trades, engineering, fabrication, HVAC, plumbing, refrigeration, piping and sophisticated building-control systems. Its expansion therefore represents investment in a portion of the regional economy increasingly important to manufacturing, commercial construction, industrial facilities and other infrastructure-intensive projects.
And unlike a newly arrived company establishing its first Missouri operation, Jarrell has deep roots in the St. Louis region.
The company’s history stretches from a young mechanical engineer working aboard U.S. Navy ships during World War II to a modern mechanical contractor serving customers nationwide.
$40 Million Investment Planned in Hazelwood
The centerpiece of the expansion is Jarrell’s planned 191,000-square-foot facility.
The company says the campus will bring multiple operations together under one roof, including offices, fabrication shops, warehousing, training and field-support functions.
Jarrell currently lists its corporate headquarters at 4208 Rider Trail North in Earth City. The company describes the Hazelwood development as its new headquarters and says the project is intended to support its next stage of growth.
Jarrell President Michael Jarrell said the company views the investment as preparation for its future while maintaining the principles that have guided the family business for more than seven decades.
The company’s leadership says consolidating operations should improve collaboration between employees and allow Jarrell to expand its capabilities as demand grows for increasingly complex mechanical projects.
The building is large.
At 191,000 square feet, the project is much larger than a conventional corporate office. Much of that space will support physical operations including fabrication and warehousing.
That reflects what Jarrell Contracting has become.
Jarrell Is More Than an HVAC Contractor
Jarrell describes itself as a full-service mechanical contractor providing design-build solutions for commercial and industrial facilities nationwide.
Its capabilities include HVAC, piping, plumbing, refrigeration and building automation, along with engineering, fabrication, installation, service and energy-management work.
Modern mechanical construction can be extraordinarily complex.
Large buildings can require extensive networks of piping, ventilation, refrigeration, computerized controls, heating and cooling equipment and energy-management systems.
Jarrell’s business includes designing and assembling portions of those systems before they reach the construction site.
Prefabrication can allow a contractor to perform work in a controlled environment rather than fabricating every component on a construction project. That can improve scheduling and quality control while reducing the amount of field fabrication required.
Jarrell says its in-house prefabrication capabilities give the company greater control over quality, safety, and project schedules.
The Hazelwood facility appears designed in part to expand that model.
Company History Begins During World War II
Jarrell Contracting’s history predates the company’s formal creation.
According to Jarrell’s corporate history, founder Charles E. Jarrell was a young mechanical engineer during World War II.
In 1943, Jarrell used his mechanical-engineering expertise to service refrigeration equipment aboard U.S. Navy ships.
That experience eventually led him from refrigeration into the rapidly developing commercial air-conditioning industry.
In 1954, Charles Jarrell entered the air-conditioning business and began servicing approximately 440 JCPenney stores nationwide.
The business was eventually incorporated in 1965.
That origin provides an interesting perspective on the company’s current expansion.
A business that began with one engineer’s specialized mechanical knowledge now plans a nearly 200,000-square-foot headquarters and operations complex in North St. Louis County.
Fabrication Became an Important Part of the Business
Jarrell continued expanding beyond conventional HVAC work.
In 1979, the company opened a 10,000-square-foot fabrication shop, increasing its ability to perform design-build HVAC projects.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Jarrell established service, electrical and plumbing divisions and expanded its building-automation and post-construction capabilities.
During the 2000s, the company added another fabrication operation devoted to piping and plumbing.
Today, Jarrell says it employs more than 200 professionals serving hundreds of customers nationwide.
The company remains family-owned.
That makes the proposed 105-job expansion particularly notable.
If all projected positions are created, the expansion would represent a substantial increase relative to the workforce figure Jarrell currently publishes.
The state says the new positions will pay an average wage significantly above the county average, potentially adding higher-paying skilled employment to the region.
Refrigeration Acquisition Expanded Jarrell Again
Jarrell made another strategic move in 2023 when it acquired H&A Mechanical Services.
The acquisition expanded Jarrell’s commercial refrigeration capabilities.
Refrigeration can be particularly important for supermarkets, food manufacturing, beverage operations and other industrial and commercial customers requiring large-scale temperature-controlled systems.
Jarrell said the acquisition expanded its service capabilities and led the company to enlarge its 16,000-square-foot fabrication shop in Berkeley, Missouri.
That history provides additional context for the new Hazelwood development.
The headquarters project does not appear to be an isolated real-estate decision.
Instead, it follows decades of expanding Jarrell’s capabilities—from air conditioning to fabrication, plumbing, piping, electrical systems, automation, energy management and refrigeration.
The 191,000-square-foot Hazelwood operation is intended to bring much of that expertise together.
Building Automation Is Another Growing Business
Jarrell also operates in a part of the construction industry that receives considerably less public attention: building automation.
Modern commercial and industrial buildings increasingly rely on computerized systems to control heating, ventilation, air conditioning and other building functions.
Jarrell says its building-automation team includes 15 engineers and eight professional engineers, with expertise in direct digital control systems. The company says intelligent controls can produce substantial energy savings depending on the building and application.
Jarrell has also developed its Green Energy Management Solutions operation, which works with property owners and managers to reduce energy consumption and operating expenses.
The company reported helping customers achieve approximately 8.7 million kilowatt-hours in energy savings in 2021, while obtaining more than $1.3 million in energy-related incentives for customers.
In 2023, Jarrell reported another 3.28 million kilowatt-hours of customer energy savings through its work and was recognized through Ameren Missouri’s BizSavers program.
That expertise could become increasingly valuable as businesses face higher energy costs and commercial buildings become more technologically sophisticated.
Missouri Is Providing Economic Incentives
The Hazelwood expansion is not being financed exclusively without public economic-development assistance.
The Missouri Department of Economic Development says Jarrell is expected to receive approximately $5.19 million through the Missouri Works Program, subject to verification that the company satisfies the program’s requirements.
Missouri Works is one of the state’s principal economic-development incentive programs.
It allows qualifying companies expanding or retaining operations in Missouri to access benefits through mechanisms including retained employee withholding taxes or state tax credits associated with job creation.
The program is performance-based, meaning the $5.19 million estimate should not be interpreted as Missouri simply handing Jarrell that amount before the promised investment and employment occur.
Nevertheless, the public assistance is economically significant.
Compared with the announced 105 jobs, the maximum estimated Missouri Works benefit represents roughly $49,400 per projected new position.
That calculation helps evaluate the scale of the state’s participation, although it is not the same as saying taxpayers are paying $49,400 in cash for every employee hired.
Jarrell must satisfy applicable program requirements to receive the incentives.
Skilled-Trades Jobs Matter to the St. Louis Economy
The type of employment being created may be as important as the number of jobs.
Mechanical contracting requires workers across numerous disciplines, potentially including engineers, project managers, HVAC professionals, plumbers, pipefitters, refrigeration specialists, controls technicians, fabricators, service technicians and administrative personnel.
Jarrell’s existing employment materials describe in-house engineering, installation, service and prefabrication capabilities, demonstrating the breadth of occupations involved in the company’s business.
Those jobs represent a different form of economic development from the office employment frequently emphasized in corporate relocation announcements.
Skilled construction and mechanical work cannot easily be separated from the physical economy.
Factories need mechanical systems.
Hospitals need heating, cooling and controls.
Food manufacturers need refrigeration.
Commercial buildings need HVAC and automation.
Industrial facilities require piping and specialized mechanical infrastructure.
As those facilities become more sophisticated, the need for workers who can design, fabricate, install, and maintain their systems grows.
Jarrell Senior Vice President Jeffrey Grass said demand for complex mechanical projects continues to grow and that the new facility should strengthen the company’s ability to pursue additional opportunities.
Hazelwood Gains Another Major Business Investment
For Hazelwood, the development represents a sizable private investment and potentially more than 100 additional jobs.
The city sits in an important industrial and logistics section of North St. Louis County, near major interstate highways and St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
Interim Hazelwood City Manager Jim Hudanick described Jarrell’s decision as a significant community investment expected to create employment and strengthen the local economy.
The St. Louis Economic Development Partnership has also endorsed the expansion as beneficial to the region.
From a broader economic perspective, Jarrell’s project shows that St. Louis’ industrial economy extends beyond factories and warehouses.
Those facilities create demand for an ecosystem of contractors, engineers, equipment suppliers and skilled trades responsible for building and maintaining them.
Jarrell occupies a substantial position within that ecosystem.
Questions Remain as the Project Moves Forward
Although the expansion announcement provides considerable information, several details will become important as the Hazelwood project develops.
The company and economic-development officials have not publicly detailed the exact average salary associated with the 105 projected jobs, despite saying it will be well above the St. Louis County average.
It will also be important to determine how many existing Jarrell employees will relocate to Hazelwood in addition to the 105 newly created positions.
Jarrell currently operates from Earth City and has fabrication operations in Berkeley. The company says the new headquarters will bring its teams and operations together, raising questions about the eventual disposition of existing facilities.
Additional local incentives, property-tax arrangements and development financing associated with the Hazelwood property should also become clearer as the project advances.
Those details matter when evaluating the full economic benefit to taxpayers and the community.
From Navy Refrigeration to a $40 Million Expansion
The larger Jarrell story is unusual because the company’s development parallels much of the evolution of America’s mechanical-building industry.
Charles Jarrell began with refrigeration technology aboard Navy ships during World War II.
He moved into commercial air conditioning during the 1950s.
The company expanded into fabrication during the 1970s.
It added plumbing, electrical and building automation capabilities during subsequent decades.
It expanded piping and plumbing fabrication.
It moved deeper into energy management and computerized building controls.
Then it acquired additional commercial refrigeration capabilities.
Now, more than seven decades after its founding, the family-owned company is preparing for a $40 million investment in a 191,000-square-foot Hazelwood headquarters and operations center expected to create 105 jobs.
That makes the project more than another construction announcement.
It represents the expansion of a homegrown St. Louis company whose work has evolved from basic refrigeration and air conditioning into increasingly sophisticated mechanical and building technologies.
For a region seeking additional private investment and higher-paying employment, the project’s most important number may ultimately not be its 191,000 square feet or even its reported $40 million price tag.
It will be whether Jarrell delivers the 105 new jobs, the above-average wages and the additional growth the new headquarters is intended to make possible.
If those projections are realized, a company that began with one St. Louis engineer’s mechanical expertise more than 70 years ago will be responsible for another meaningful investment in the region’s next generation of skilled industrial and construction employment.
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