New position: Division manager, Manhattan Construction Co., Tampa. Previous position: Executive vice president, Skanska USA Building, Tampa
By FRED W. WRIGHT JR.
Published November 24, 2003
Since August, Frank Fralick has been building a new office for a new major contractor in Florida: Manhattan Construction Co.
Fralick has done this before - nine years ago for what is now Skanska USA Building.
"I'm totally responsible for building this office from the ground up, so to speak," he said, "also for whatever Manhattan does in the state."
He has a staff of five, which he expects to expand to eight or nine by year-end and to 20 within a year.
In addition to setting up a physical office, Fralick is tasked with dealing with licenses and certifications "and all the things that go with that. We have to get a marketing plan in place and start reintroducing ourselves to clients I've worked with over the past 10 years in Florida," he said.
Tampa is Manhattan's only office in Florida - so far.
"We're new to the state, no projects right now in the state," Fralick said. But he and his staff will start "immediately putting out proposals. We're working on four proposals right now" and one bid is out and waiting for a response.
He said he enjoys all the processes and procedures required to seek a construction contract. "The chase is the fun part," he said. "Both bidding and proposals are fun."
Manhattan Construction Co., a 107-year-old Oklahoma company, opened its Tampa office as part of an expansion into the Southeast. It also recently opened offices in Georgia and South Carolina.
Fralick joined Beers Construction (now Skanska USA) in 1989 as vice president. As group president, he moved from Atlanta to Florida in 1994, in charge of establishing a Tampa office. He later opened offices for Skanska in Orlando and Jacksonville but remained based in Tampa.
Between 1994 and when he left Skanska, Fralick was responsible for approximately $1-billion in work. Projects in the Tampa Bay area included the AmSouth Bank Towers, Airside E at Tampa International Airport, the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center Outpatient Surgery expansion, Bob Martinez Middle School and International Mall Plaza, all in Tampa. In Pinellas County, Fralick's projects included overseeing the surgery expansion and emergency room renovation at St. Anthony's Hospital.
"Florida is my home," Fralick said. He grew up in Mount Dora, attended the University of South Florida for two years and graduated from the University of Central Florida in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in business administration.
His first job in the construction industry was with a small company in Leesburg, where he worked until 1977 when he joined Charter Builders in Orlando.
"It's an intriguing business for me," Fralick said, "because you're taking a set of drawings, taking anywhere from 20 to 30 subcontractors, and you . . . basically orchestrate those people to buy products, put them together and end up with a finished building.
"It's an amazing thing that all that happens," he said. "I'm amazed at it today.
"There's a great satisfaction in walking through a building that's completed and just kind of reminiscing on all that it took to get there."
Fralick, 56, and his family live in Tampa. He is on the board of directors of the Hillsborough Community College Foundation and St. Anthony's Hospital Foundation. Since Fralick worked on projects involving both institutions, he said he sees his presence on their boards as paying "civic rent."
"You can't just be a taker from your community," Fralick said. "You've got to give back some of your time, some of your energy."
For relaxation, Fralick said he and his wife, Sandie, like to travel. They have three children, the youngest a junior in college. They are expecting their first grandchild in November, he said.
