B.R. Fries & Associates

What B.R. Fries & Associates does

B.R. Fries & Associates LLC is a privately held, founder-owned construction management, general contracting, and design-build firm headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, founded in 1979 by Principal Barry Fries. The firm serves enterprise clients exclusively in the New York City metropolitan area across four primary verticals — healthcare (NYU Langone Health, Hospital for Special Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian, Mount Sinai), corporate (NBC Universal, Truist Financial, Pandora Media, Tommy Hilfiger, Nature Publishing Group), academic (Gateway School of New York, NYU Lutheran, Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School), and retail (Target, Home Depot, Amazon, BJ's Wholesale Club, Macy's, Kohl's) — executing projects ranging from complex occupied-hospital renovations and flagship retail buildouts to large distribution facilities and corporate headquarters. Notable engagements include a 420,000-square-foot Amazon distribution facility on Staten Island, a 150,000-square-foot, four-phase news operations consolidation at 30 Rockefeller Center for NBC Universal, and the first LEED CI certified education project in NYC for Gateway School.

The firm delivers projects through a unified services stack — Preconstruction Services (budgeting, cost evaluation, scheduling, logistics), Design-Build, Construction Management, and General Contracting — unified by the proprietary FriesWay Work Smart System, a best-practices project management framework co-developed in-house with FMI Corporation. Procore is deployed as the firm's enterprise project management platform for collaboration, document control, and risk reduction. No AI/ML capabilities are developed in-house; the firm relies on traditional construction services expertise and deep institutional relationships rather than technology differentiation.

B.R. Fries generates revenue through project-based professional services fees on individually negotiated construction contracts (lump-sum or cost-plus) within the NYC metro area. The firm is led by a small senior management team (Principal Barry Fries, EVP of Corporate Strategy Steven Kirschenbaum, Director of Project Finance Fiona Schumann, Director of Operations Barna Tokay/Barna/Steve Scofield, Account Executive Allan Kleinman) and has historically operated without external funding, M&A activity, or geographic expansion beyond the NYC region. Customer concentration is high by virtue of repeat engagement with a relatively small set of large institutional anchors, and the business model is fundamentally a relationship-driven, lifestyle-scale construction services firm.

Name

B.R. Fries & Associates

Legal name

B.R. Fries & Associates LLC

Website

https://brfries.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1979

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

B.R. Fries & Associates is a privately held NYC construction management, general contracting, and design-build firm founded in 1979, serving enterprise healthcare, corporate, academic, and retail clients exclusively in the New York City metropolitan area through its proprietary FriesWay Work Smart System.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

New City

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Construction Management Services: Full-service construction management including pre-construction services (budgeting, cost evaluation, scheduling, logistics), construction coordination, and project closeout. Revenue is generated through project-based fees on completed construction projects.
2. General Contracting: Complete general contracting services for construction projects across academic, corporate, healthcare, and retail sectors. Revenue generated through lump-sum or cost-plus contracts on completed projects.
3. Design-Build Services: Integrated design-build delivery method combining design and construction under one contract. Provides clients with single-point responsibility for project delivery.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

B.R. Fries & Associates delivers construction management, general contracting, design-build, and preconstruction consulting services for commercial projects in the New York City metropolitan area. The firm serves enterprise clients across healthcare, corporate, academic, retail, and general construction sectors, operating under its proprietary FriesWay Work Smart System — a project management framework developed with FMI that standardizes planning, documentation, and performance controls.

Product overview

B.R. Fries & Associates operates as a single unified construction services platform offering integrated preconstruction and construction services. The core offering is the proprietary FriesWay Work Smart System, a best-practices project management framework that underpins all service delivery. Services are organized into four main modules: Preconstruction Services (budgeting, cost evaluation, scheduling, logistics), Design-Build Services, Construction Management, and General Contracting. The company delivers these services across five industry sectors: Academic, Corporate, Healthcare, Retail, and General Construction. The FriesWay Work Smart System serves as the operational backbone, while the sector-specific services represent specialized expertise areas serving clients including Fortune 500 corporations, leading hospitals, top universities, and national retailers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• FriesWay Work Smart System: A proprietary best-practices project management framework developed in-house by B.R. Fries in collaboration with FMI, the nation's leading construction management consulting firm. It is a structured planning, standardized procedures, and performance controls framework.

Products and services

• Construction Management Full-service construction management including bid procurement, leveling, and complete project oversight from preconstruction through closeout, delivered for enterprise clients across healthcare, corporate, academic, and retail sectors.
• General Contracting Full-scope general contracting for new building construction, interior renovations and fitouts, facade and lobby restorations, and infrastructure upgrades, executed under lump-sum or cost-plus contracts.
• Design-Build Services Integrated design-build delivery method that combines design and construction under a single contract, providing clients with one point of responsibility for project delivery.
• Preconstruction Services Pre-construction consulting covering budgeting, cost evaluation, scheduling, and logistics coordination to support project planning before construction begins.

Quantifiable outcome

• Successful completion of award-winning projects across healthcare, corporate, academic, and retail sectors
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers18 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• FMI (Construction Management Consulting Firm)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFMI, the nation's leading construction management consulting firm, collaborated with B.R. Fries in the development of the proprietary FriesWay Work Smart System. FMI's participation helped create a best-practices project management framework combining structured planning, standardized procedures, and performance controls.
• ProcorecoreTechnology or IntegrationB.R. Fries utilizes Procore as its project management platform to enhance collaboration and reduce risk. Procore provides construction-specific project management, quality control, and document management capabilities.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Plaza Construction: NYC-based construction manager and general contractor with residential, commercial, hospitality, and healthcare exposure. Comparable mid-sized NYC peer to B.R. Fries.
• Pavarini McGovern: NYC-based construction management and general contracting firm serving commercial, hospitality, healthcare, and institutional clients. Similar mid-market NYC positioning to B.R. Fries.
• Hunter Roberts Construction Group: NYC-based general contractor and construction manager focused on commercial, healthcare, and institutional projects in the metro area. Closely comparable to B.R. Fries in scale, geography, and service mix.
• Gilbane Building Company: National construction management firm with a strong NYC presence serving healthcare, education, corporate, and life sciences clients. Comparable to B.R. Fries in CM-led delivery and healthcare specialization.
• AECOM Tishman: Major NYC-based construction manager historically responsible for iconic commercial builds. Directly competes with B.R. Fries on large corporate, healthcare, and institutional projects in the NYC metro area.
• Cauldwell Wingate: NYC-headquartered general contractor serving commercial, institutional, healthcare, and interior fitout clients. Directly competes with B.R. Fries for similar project types and client base in NYC.
• Structure Tone: NYC-headquartered construction management and general contracting firm serving corporate, healthcare, education, and hospitality clients. Most directly comparable to B.R. Fries given shared NYC base, project-management-led delivery model, and overlapping vertical mix.

Broad incumbents

• Lendlease Construction: Global construction firm with active NYC operations across commercial, healthcare, and mixed-use projects. Competes with B.R. Fries on select institutional and corporate programs, though at much larger scale.
• Skanska USA: Global construction firm with significant NYC commercial, healthcare, and education presence. Competes for similar institutional and corporate work as B.R. Fries, with substantially larger project capacity.
• Turner Construction Company: Largest commercial construction manager in the U.S. with deep NYC roots across healthcare, corporate, retail, and education. Competes with B.R. Fries on mid-to-large projects and dwarfs it in scale.

Market position

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about B.R. Fries & Associates