Stephen Eigenrauch – Director of Business Development, Grace Construction Management Company

STEPHEN EIGENRAUCH
Hobie Baker, Princeton University Hockey Rink. So the hockey rink is the oldest one in North America. The building is slightly over 100 years old. And Hobie Baker, who was the only professional athlete that played in the NHL and also played in the NFL, and he's in the Hall of Fame.

GREG SIMPSON
Today on the Built2Suit podcast, we sit down with Steve Eigenrauch of Grace Construction to talk about building across his 13 market sectors, managing complex projects like Princeton's historic hockey rink and why communication and culture matter in construction. Steve shares his insights on pre-construction strategy, scaling nationally, and lessons from decades of leadership. Ready for a conversation about growth and grit? Take it away, Nathan.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
So 39 years. Congratulations on that. Yeah. So not only are you committed to fly down this morning for the show, which coming out of Philly at 7:00 AM, you're committed to the industry. So tell me a little bit about Grace Construction.

STEPHEN EIGENRAUCH
Grace, we were established in 2007. I have three other partners. We were in a rowboat with one ore, kind of spinning around for a while. So that was 07 and we just kept growing and building new team members and having fun together. And we like to work hard, play hard.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
You told me have fun, so that's good. Yeah. I appreciate that. I pray it's too hard to not have a little bit of fun. So what type ... Obviously we're setting at ICSC, so I'm sure retail is a part of your portfolio, but what else do you guys like to build?

STEPHEN EIGENRAUCH
We're in 13 different market sectors, so not only for manufacturing-

NATHAN GRIFFIS
You got 10 letters in your last name and 13 market sectors you couldn't figure out how to streamline life? Well, I asked my kids,

STEPHEN EIGENRAUCH
My two young boys, to change the name to just Rauch. R-A-U-C-H. Yeah. Do all these syllables and stuff. And they didn't want- They weren't buying it. So we're not changing the name. Yeah. We've done some retail work for a lot of the popular clients. Walmart, Whole Foods. For a lot of the guys that are out here and girls that are out here, whether it's Brixmor or KimCo, we're doing four Shake Shacks in Florida right now and three AutoZones. Okay. I'm down here trying to drive business, not only on the retail sector, but if you want to call automotive car dealerships, we do a lot of those up north.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Okay.

STEPHEN EIGENRAUCH
We're licensed in 25 states and we're in nine states right now from Oregon, Indianapolis, all the way down to Florida and into Connecticut and Rhode Island.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
So I selfishly, I want to ask you, and I won't ask you for names because I'm smarter than that, but how are you getting your sub mix that stretched? It's one thing to move somebody from state to state, but it's another thing to move somebody from Oregon to Florida. I mean-

STEPHEN EIGENRAUCH
Well, our pre-construction services team is probably our best asset. I mean, not to say that building a building is easy. It's not easy. You got to take safety. Safety's number one, that's our culture. But when you do your pre-construction homework and you're diving into environments that you haven't been before, you can use technology to vet a lot of the new subs. So the old days of going into Ferguson or Margam or US Builder or a distribution center where you're getting plumbing supplies, you want to talk to the people and you want to make sure that you're getting good subs. Give me the top three guys that pay their bills and they have reputations to do good work.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
So

STEPHEN EIGENRAUCH
You use that hand in hand with the new technology and you put it out on PlanSmart or you put it out on ConstructConnect or whatever you're using in order to get and generate subs because we're partnering with them. We're not signatory. We don't have carpenters on our staff. So we're a true construction manager with a GC twist to it.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Okay. So you're relying on your

STEPHEN EIGENRAUCH
Sourcing. 100%.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yeah.

STEPHEN EIGENRAUCH
And we pay. So we pay our bills and then we pay our subs. So it's this constant in and out, in and out, in and out. And that's how you get good bids.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yeah.

STEPHEN EIGENRAUCH
So you get good bids by paying.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yeah.

STEPHEN EIGENRAUCH
So it's been a pretty good success story.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Well, you're name dropping some powerful REITs, obviously some of the best retailers in the world. We're fortunate to be working with a few of those along the way as well. And so those aren't easy to come by. They can be harder to maintain unless you do a good job. So that tells me that Grace is doing a pretty good job. So over your years, what's some of the work that you're saying? I'm really, I'm proud to drive the family by that one and tell them that one's mine. It's all 10 letters associated with it.

STEPHEN EIGENRAUCH
Yeah. I think there's a bunch, but one of them is really cool that we're actually doing right now is the Hobie Baker Princeton University Hockey Rink. So the hockey rink is the oldest one in North America. The building is slightly over a hundred years old and Hobie Baker, who was the only professional athlete that played in the NHL and also played in the NFL and he's in the Hall of Fame. In both Hall of Fames? That rink, that ice rink right now, we're rebuilding it...