Company History

In the fall of 1965 Wills Long made the bold move to leave the comfort of a sales engineer position with the Trane Company to start his own business as a manufacturer’s representative of HVAC equipment – Long Company. Armed with a small loan, the company started with humble beginnings. In fact, LONG’s very first office was in the basement of the Long’s family home in Colorado.

I decided to strike out on my own. I had zero money…I had no assets, only an idea and courage.

- Wills Long

Some of LONG’s original product lines included long-term partners, like McQuay (now a Daikin company) and Ruskin, who we still do business with today.

By 1968, Will’s success had drawn the attention of others in the market, and he struck up a partnership with industry veteran Hank Deming, forming the Long-Deming Company. The pair branched out from Colorado, opening an office in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Utah branch’s first official project was the LDS Office Building.

Hank Deming decided to retire in 1973, resulting in changing the company name to Long & Associates. Around the same time, the company hired entrepreneurial spirit - Ed Resavage. In an effort to provide more well-rounded customer offerings, Wills started a service unit of the business, primarily for start-up and warranty service.

Wills capped off the 70’s by striking a deal with Ed Hunt of Pace Company to sell their line of custom air handlers. This was a new technology and set the stage for future growth.

Despite a slump in the economy in the 1980’s, LONG continued its history of strategic growth. In 1983, a young and ambitious Mark Balent left Trane to join the company’s Equipment Sales team, and in 1986 the company moved into its third state, adding an office in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In 1989 Long & Associates welcomed Wills’ son, Jeff Long, formerly with IBM. At the time, the budding company had a total of 27 employees.

The 90’s marked a decade of growth and progress for the company. In 1991 Long & Associates purchased Winner and Associates and became a Barber-Colman systems integrator. But one of the biggest shifts of the decade came in 1992 when after 27 years at the helm, Wills Long retired, appointing Ed Resavage President and Mark Balent and Jeff Long Executive Vice Presidents of the company.

This leadership trio continued to build on Wills’ legacy of success. In 1994, the company opened a new office in Colorado Springs and was granted exclusive representation rights of Siebe Environmental Controls product lines (formerly Barber-Colman and Robert Shaw) in Colorado and Wyoming.

In 1997 the company opened an office in Casper, Wyoming. Later that same year, LONG adopted the Niagara Framework, becoming the second Tridium Systems Integrator in the world. This clearly marked the company’s intent to offer customers the most innovative products on the market – a value that stills holds true today.

Seeing the need to provide even further coverage throughout the company’s home state of Colorado, the Grand Junction office was opened in 1998.

Ed Resavage retired in 2000 and Mark Balent became President and Jeff Long became Chairman of the Board. Mark and Jeff co-led the company until Mark’s eventual retirement. In 2001, the company changed its name to LONG Building Technologies, Inc.

In 2002 LONG purchased Certified Service Company, Inc. (CSI) in Las Vegas, NV, and the following year purchased AA Maycock in Utah – adding several key personnel and products to the branches in those states.

Having identified an opportunity in the market, LONG opened a security business unit in 2008, making LONG one of the only providers in the Western U.S. to grant customers access to experts in building automation, HVAC equipment, mechanical service, parts and security – all in one place.

New decade, new digs. In 2010 all Denver operations were moved to a new Corporate Headquarters in Littleton, Colorado. The 50,000 square foot building houses all of LONG’s corporate support teams (Accounting, Admin, HR, IT and Marketing), as well as its main parts warehouse distribution center, in addition to its core business units. The company put its money where its mouth is with this move – using its expertise in efficiency to create a high functioning LEED Certified space for multiple business uses.

2014 was a big year of growth for LONG with acquisitions of CCI Automated Technologies, Inc., with offices in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington, as well as Big Horn Energy, with an office in Cody, WY. This acquisition was the largest in the company’s history – nearly doubling its employee base and territory.

In 2016, the company expanded into Montana at the request of several building owners to bring LONG’s offerings to an underserved market.

Jeff Long became President when Mark retired in 2018 and the company continues to prosper, setting new records each year thanks to the hard work and dedication of the entire LONG Family.