Friga Construction Co., Inc.: Helping Clients Turn Vision Into Reality

Friga Construction celebrates its 45th anniversary this year. The Friga family has owned and operated the business since its inception in Cape Girardeau in 1974. When they moved to Springfield in 1985 they decided to keep the company going.
Current president Eric Friga grew up in the construction business and began running projects since he was nineteen years old. His father Randy was president at the time and developed a passion for helping the less fortunate in Haiti. Randy and a group of friends helped build a school in Haiti and he would visit often. Every time he left, he would leave Eric in charge. When Randy passed in October 2016, Eric took over the entire operation. Eric’s mother Marsha Friga, who also sits on the board of Friga Construction says, “He left Eric in charge because he knew he’d do a good job. And he has.”
Eric Friga says the philosophy of the Friga Construction has always been to turn visions into reality. “A lot of clients, it may be their first time doing a construction project and they feel like they don’t really know what’s going on”, says Friga. “They put a lot of faith in their contractor. They have an idea in their head and they don’t necessarily know how to get there so we try to turn that vision into a reality for them.”
“We’re more about quality versus quantity on our projects,” says Friga. “When a business embarks on a construction project, you deserve reliable customer service. We make sure to communicate with our clients, meet on-time budgets, and make sure they know where they’re at every step of the way.”
“Standing out from the pack has really given us a lot of repeat and referral business,” says Friga. “With any project, things come up, problems arise. How you deal with those things really matters to the client.”
“When we do proposals, we don’t do the standard group bid,” says Friga. Every line item is listed out with our profit and overhead at the very bottom. The client then has the option to eliminate certain line items if they choose.”
“Usually when a client says ‘I have this much money,’ that’s literally how much money they have and want to spend. So it’s important to be able to mitigate those things that come up and still make sure you save the client money,” says Friga. “Maybe it’s more cost-effective appliances or doing something differently than was originally planned. We can easily change things during the process but still meet their expectations.”
In keeping with Randy Friga’s wishes, the family continues to support the school in Haiti and Eric Friga is adamant about giving back to the community and supports the Victory Mission and The Kitchen, Inc., among others. “That was one of the things my dad really believed in,” says Eric.