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Growth in construction is easy to misread. A company that doubles its revenue by taking every project it can get is not growing, it is gambling. The question worth asking is not how fast a construction company is growing but what it is growing on.
Anchor Construction was named to the Houston Business Journal Fast 100 in 2026, a recognition that tracks the fastest-growing private companies in the Houston area based on verified revenue growth. For us, that recognition is not a marketing asset. It is a signal worth explaining, because the growth it reflects is built on something specific: repeat clients who keep bringing us retail and restaurant construction programs because the first project earned the second one.
Texas is now home to the most active retail construction market in the country. Dallas, Houston, and Austin together account for 21% of the entire U.S. retail construction pipeline in 2026, roughly 15 million square feet actively under construction. If you are a retail chain evaluating construction partners for a Texas rollout, the question is not whether there is capacity in this market. It is which contractors have the execution track record to match it.
Anchor Construction is a Houston-based commercial general contractor recognized by the Houston Business Journal as one of the fastest-growing companies in the Houston area. Our retail construction portfolio includes chain restaurant and retail locations for brands including Chick-fil-A, Whataburger, Bojangles, and Cyclone Anaya's across Houston, DFW, and Texas. The growth that earned the HBJ recognition is built on repeat retail and restaurant clients, the clearest signal that a GC can execute to chain standards across multiple sites.
TL;DR
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Anchor Construction: HBJ Fast 100 company - growth built on repeat retail and restaurant chain clients, not volume
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Texas retail market: Dallas, Houston, and Austin = 21% of U.S. retail construction pipeline in 2026 (approx. 15M SF)
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Retail chain portfolio: Chick-fil-A, Whataburger, Bojangles, Cyclone Anaya's, corporate restaurants across Texas
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What makes a chain rollout GC: established sub networks per market, brand spec compliance, pre-construction per site, program-level reporting
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Values that did not change with growth: Prudent. Professional. Quality. The same standard on project 1 as on project 50
What Does the HBJ Fast 100 Actually Mean for a Construction Company?
The Houston Business Journal Fast 100 measures revenue growth over a defined period for private companies in the Houston market. For a law firm or a tech startup, that number is relatively straightforward to interpret. For a construction company, it requires more context.
Construction revenue can grow in two fundamentally different ways. A GC can grow by saying yes to more projects, bidding more aggressively, and expanding scope faster than the team can absorb. That kind of growth is visible in the revenue line and invisible until a project fails and then the failure is very visible.
The other kind of growth is driven by clients who come back. When a chain that built one location with you calls about the next three, the growth is a byproduct of execution quality, not a substitute for it. That is the growth that earned Anchor's HBJ recognition, and it is the difference that matters to a retail chain evaluating construction partners for a Texas program.
The repeat client pattern holds across our portfolio. You can see it in how we approach retail construction across Texas, the same clients bringing us multiple sites because the first one was done right.
What Does Our Retail Construction Portfolio Actually Look Like?
The best answer to 'can you execute a retail chain rollout in Texas?' is a list of the brands that already trusted us to do it and came back.
Here is a sample of what that portfolio looks like across Texas:
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Chick-fil-A - Magnolia, TX: Ground-up quick-service restaurant build. Brand spec compliance, drive-through geometry, compressed timeline. Project won recognition from the client.
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Whataburger - Weatherford, TX: Currently under construction at 333 Centerpoint Rd. Pre-construction coordination on drive-through civil and MEP sequencing critical to schedule.
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Bojangles - League City, TX: Restaurant expansion into one of Houston's fastest-growing southern suburbs. New-to-market brand entry following rooftop growth.
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Cyclone Anaya's - River Oaks, Houston: 6,250 SF restaurant build in one of Houston's most competitive dining corridors. Design-intensive build with indoor-outdoor bar and brand heritage elements.
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Corporate Restaurants - Multiple Texas locations: Build program for corporate restaurant clients across Houston, DFW, and suburban corridors. Program-managed for brand consistency across locations.
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AC Hotel by Marriott - CityCentre, Houston: $19M, 153-room, six-story hospitality build. Demonstrates execution capability beyond retail into full-service hospitality at scale.
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Aria at Burke - Pasadena, TX: 152-unit luxury residential community at 5045 Burke Rd. Completed 2025. A client relationship that earned the next project.
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Aria at Resource - Houston, TX: 160-unit multifamily community currently in development at 11210 Resource Parkway. Same client, second program, the clearest signal that Aria at Burke was delivered to the standard that earns a repeat.
This is not a complete list. It is a representative sample of the type of client and the type of execution that drives Anchor's growth. Every project on this list was followed by a conversation about what comes next.
For more detail on how these projects were executed and what they meant for the neighborhoods and markets they serve, see our post on five Houston-area projects where our work transformed a neighborhood.
Why Does the Texas Retail Market Reward GCs Who Stay Focused?
Texas is the most active retail construction market in the country right now and active markets are where unfocused GCs get exposed fastest.
Dallas, Houston, and Austin alone account for 21 percent of the entire U.S. retail construction pipeline. Texas adds 400,000 residents annually, and national chains are following those rooftops into suburban corridors across the state. The demand is real, the pipeline is full, and the competition for quality subcontractors, experienced superintendents, and permitting relationships is intense.
In this environment, a GC that knows its markets have structural advantages over one that chases every project type without the depth to back it up. At Anchor, our focus on retail, restaurant, and multifamily construction means we have subcontractor relationships built over years of repeated work in Houston, DFW, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi not assembled at bid day for each new project. The Aria at Burke and Aria at Resource programs are as much a part of that track record as the Chick-fil-A and Whataburger builds. Different project types, same standard.
It also means our pre-construction process is calibrated for retail specifically. We know the brand spec gaps that show up in quick-service restaurant drawings. We know the civil engineering questions that need to be answered before a drive-through site is priced. We know which permitting timelines in which Texas cities will break a rollout schedule if they are not built in from day one.
This is the operational foundation that chain rollout partners need to understand before selecting a GC. Our guide on what retail chains should ask before signing with a construction company covers the evaluation framework in detail.
How Do We Grow Without Losing What Made Us Good?
This is the question that every growing construction company has to answer honestly. Growth creates pressure on the things that made the early projects successful: the senior team's direct involvement, the subcontractor relationships that were built on trust and consistency, the attention to detail that comes from caring about the outcome and not just the margin.
At Anchor, the answer is deliberate. Our values: Prudent. Professional. Quality, are not a poster on the wall. They are the standard we hold every project to, and the reason clients come back. When we add capacity, we add people who understand that standard and are held to it from their first project.
Being family-owned matters here. Brock and Sonya Bly built this company on the premise that doing the work right the first time is the only real growth strategy. When growth creates pressure to cut corners, on pre-construction analysis, on subcontractor selection, on the quality of the superintendent running the job we push back against it. The short-term cost of maintaining standards is always lower than the long-term cost of a project that did not meet them.
The HBJ Fast 100 recognition reflects what happens when that commitment to standards produces repeat clients. We are not growing by taking every job we can get. We are growing because the clients who hired us once keep bringing the next program.
You can see what that growth looks like in practice across our commercial construction portfolio in Houston and Texas.
Planning a retail program in Texas? Let's talk about what makes a rollout partner worth keeping.
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