Saratoga Business Journal Photo
By Christine Graf
F. H. Alexander of Schaghticoke has been providing commercial construction, design/build, and commercial renovation services to customers throughout the Northeast since 1991. Last year was a busy one for the company, with crews working on projects in Ticonderoga, Moreau, Oneonta, Plattsburgh and beyond
In Moreau, they built an Alltown Fresh truck stop, one that opened just a few months ago. For F. H. Alexander, it was their third Alltown Fresh. The others are located in Schenectady and Livingston.
The company also completed construction of a Hoffman Car Wash in Oneonta as well as a Dunkin Donuts in Plattsburgh. Construction of Paper and Pencil, a new restaurant in Ticonderoga, will wrap up after all of the kitchen equipment arrives.
“We have absolutely nothing local going on at the moment,” said company president Frank Alessandrini. “We do have a small fitness center addition to the Marriott Fairfield at Exit 12 in Malta that’s coming up this spring. We also have a structural renovation project in Albany that’s also supposed to happen in the spring.”
Currently, F. H. Alexander has three Dunkin Donuts remodels underway in Plattsburgh. This summer, they will start construction of a new Dunkin Donuts in Malone, one that will include a restaurant, donut production facility, and retail rental space.
The company typically has three to four fairly large projects underway at any given time. On average, they bid 90 to 100 total jobs per year.
F. H. Alexander has worked on projects as far away as Springfield, Massachusetts, and the company provided project management for a customer in Southern New Jersey. They have worked in Pennsylvania and Connecticut and are currently bidding on several projects in Vermont.
“We tend not to venture too far west of Syracuse, and we try to focus on the eastern half of New York State, north of Westchester County,” said Alessandrini. “It depends a lot on the customer. For a customer that is a repeat customer and that we have a good relationship with, we will go just about anywhere.”
According to Alessandrini, one of these repeat customers is a restaurateur who operates throughout northern New York.
“He is a very good customer, and we do the lion’s share of his work. We will go wherever he needs us to go, and we did a couple of Kentucky Fried Chicken renovations for him a few years ago in Messina and Canton.”
With a staff of 14 employees, F. H. Alexander specializes in project management. The company relies heavily on sub-contractors, performing some of the carpentry and concrete work themselves.
Alessandrini reports that the commercial market remains strong but that the skilled labor shortage has prevented his company from expanding.
“We’re a small company, so we can generally stay busy whether the economy is good or bad. We are seeing a similar flow of estimates and available projects for us, but the shortage of labor has kept us from growing the way I would like and from taking on more projects.”
Faced with a situation that he described as “horrendous,” Alessandrini said it is nearly impossible to hire qualified employees.
“It’s a bad situation. I think the education system in this country has done a tremendous disservice by not encouraging people to get practical education.”
At F.H. Alexander, the labor shortage has placed additional stress on the company’s field managers who are forced to pick up the slack.
Adding to the problem for smaller companies is when trained employees are lured away by larger companies.
“Over the years, I have trained people in field supervision and they’ve been snapped up by companies with fancy front offices and much deeper pockets than mine,” he said. “That’s the way of the world, and I certainly don’t begrudge somebody trying to better themselves.”
For more information, visit fhalexander.com