F&R Construction Group Leading in P.R, Caribbean Markets

 

Over the past four decades, F&R Construction Group Inc. has been responsible for a long list of successful projects that were delivered on time and within budget to satisfied customers as well as leading the construction industry in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. Founded in 1972 by a group of young, enterprising and dedicated professionals with a solid educational background and unwavering commitment to assist and support their clients, F&R Construction Group has played an important role in shaping modern Puerto Rico and helping their business partners promptly and efficiently achieve their goals by building landmarks and reshaping the island’s skyline. F&R Construction Group’s experience includes both reinforced concrete and structural steel buildings, high and low rises as well as site development.

 

The company works in various market segments that involve academic, corporate, design build/fast track, green buildings, healthcare, hospitality, industrial, infrastructure, institutional, military, parking structures, retail and other industries and special projects. The company’s track record of projects and assignments features a wide scope of high-end residential projects, including high-rise condominiums, public-interest housing, complex commercial assignments, high-rise office buildings, mixed-use projects, shopping malls, parking garages, hotels, marinas, manufacturing and pharmaceutical facilities, institutional and government public works, hospitals, museums, sports stadiums, schools and universities, prison complexes and convention centers, among many others.

 

“We work on projects through auctions or that are negotiated with owners. We are one of the few contractors in Puerto Rico that continually repeats with owners; that’s a formula to establish that things are going well, because when we repeat, it’s because they want us,” said Ángel Antonio Fullana Olivencia, PE, founder & president of F&R Construction Group. “You hire us, and we finish the project on time and [within budget]. I’ve been in this industry for 45 years, and we have never had to pay a dollar for any delay,” he added. Among F&R Construction Group’s most remarkable projects are Puerto Rico’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, Convention Center, Museum of Art, Pediatric Hospital, Caguas Judicial Center, Sheraton Hotel, Paseo Caribe and many others. After the 2017 hurricanes, the construction market has faced many significant challenges.

 

The biggest change in the construction industry is the government. The government is a stone in the road with all the permits and the bureaucracy that does not let us work as we would like.

— Ángel Antonio Fullana Olivencia, PE, founding partner & president of F&R Construction Group

 

“The biggest change in the construction industry is the government. The government is a roadblock with all the permits and the bureaucracy that does not let us work as we would like,” Fullana Olivencia stressed. Likewise, the partner & vice president of F&R Construction Group, Antonio Fullana Morales, BSCE, said: “We have also encountered the obstacle of working with a lack of personnel due to this emergency, which has put employment in Puerto Rico in a much more difficult position.” “We simply try to get more personnel and pay as efficiently and as soon as we can, without owing money to people, and being very effective in our payments, that has been part of our success,” Fullana Olivencia noted. During the reconstruction process after the hurricanes, F&R Construction Group was one of seven contractors that worked on projects with the Tu Hogar Renace program. F&R was one of only two Puerto Rico companies that worked in the recovery process.

 

The company repaired 23,000 homes in a nine-month period. “We complied, with the total and absolute satisfaction of the local Housing Department,” the executive said. Looking to the future, Fullana Olivencia said: “We are extremely optimistic about all the money that is going to come in from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as the rest of the federal funds, but at the same time we are concerned about the government bureaucracy and how slow they move. We know that when the money comes, that brings more construction projects.” The island’s leading trade organizations, including the P.R. chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America and the P.R. chapter of the National Association of Home Builders, which locally is called P.R. Builders Association, have consistently recognized and praised F&R Construction Group’s work.

 

Source: Caribbean Business – Big Business Profile: Engineering, Architecture & Construction – Thursday, February 28, 2019 (p. 16)

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