A People-First
Demolition Contractor

MILBURN Demolition began in early 2014 as a one-person show -- a guy who thought demolition didn't have to be unsafe, dirty, or old-school.

James Milburn stumbled into demolition while going to school at Purdue for Construction Management. After attending demolition conferences, he fell in love with the world of demolishing stuff and decided it was the career path for him. He quickly went to work for a few demolition companies after school and began to learn how the industry operated.

What he learned was that the world of demolition is an aging dinosaur. It's not always safe, there is no sense of service to customers or employees, and there is no urgency to try new ways of doing business. James had a choice -- either stay at existing companies with limited upward mobility and potential or pave his path by starting a modern demolition company. Despite the financial risk and his young family, he chose the latter largely thanks to his wife Jess's confidence and support in the vision.

Thanks to his retirement savings and a loan from his parents to make payroll, he began the business in 2014. He was a breath of fresh air for massive development companies looking for a better demolition solution, and MILBURN quickly began to win much more work than James could handle. Since he was the one taking care of the entire business from estimating to HR, he needed someone who lived and breathed the field operations side of demolition to ensure projects went smoothly.

Enter Don Collier, MILBURN's Principal & Director of Field Operations. Thanks to having a baby to support, Don needed a job at the age of 17. His friend's dad owned a demolition company, so Don started as a laborer in the demolition industry before he could vote. By the time he could legally enjoy a beer, he was a superintendent. After nearly three decades of demolishing anything and everything, Don was the natural fit to run MILBURN's field operations.

Thanks to James' and Don's leadership, they've built an incredible team of hardworking demolition professionals who work day and often night to help create the future of Chicago development. Sure, company leadership provides the tools, but it's up to the people behind MILBURN to make every project a success from both a safety and financial standpoint.

MILBURN is doing demolition differently by respecting and educating their people, serving every customer, investing in safety, and adopting the latest technology. There's no sense of "business as usual" at MILBURN, and that's why being a part of the company is so exciting.