Our History
Founded in 1976 by R.A. “Chupa” Nelson, RA Nelson is an employee-owned full-service General Contractor headquartered in Avon in Colorado’s Vail Valley with a regional office near Aspen in the Roaring Fork Valley. We offer preconstruction, construction management/general contractor services, excavation and property management services. As a local mountain contractor, we have experience in working in difficult to access areas, erecting complex structures, delivering the most refined architectural elements, and installing state-of-the-art building technology. With thirteen LEED® AP/GA on staff and eleven LEED® Certified projects, our team excels at providing creative sustainable solutions and alternative building practices and materials.
RA Nelson has a diverse portfolio of work, specializing in high-end custom homes, award-winning sustainable buildings, recreational complexes, multi-family residential projects, affordable housing neighborhoods, educational facilities, hotels, restaurants, commercial buildings, tenant finishes, and interior and exterior renovations. Born in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, we have been building mountain communities for almost 50 years, including Vail, Beaver Creek, Bachelor Gulch, Cordillera, Aspen, Snowmass, Buttermilk, Keystone, Breckenridge, and Telluride. Our core values are: TEAMWORK – together we respect, trust and listen; INTEGRITY – Do what we say we will do, every single time; ENJOYMENT – Be passionate and have fun with everything we do.