When Brian Zadrozny founded BFZ Electric in 2004, there was no large investment behind the business and no immediate plan to become one of Connecticut’s leading electrical contractors. The company began with one man, then one employee, and for more than a decade, that was enough. The work was steady, the expectations were modest. “We were just two guys wiring houses, doing some commercial remodeling,” Brian said. “There was quite a bit of time where there was no growth, but we were just happy working that way. Then we decided to start growing and started focusing on the culture of the company and building relationships with bigger customers.”
That decision changed the direction of BFZ Electric. Since 2017, the company has grown from generating less than $1 million in annual revenue to approximately $18 million, expanding to more than 80 employees and building a reputation across Connecticut for commercial, multifamily, industrial, healthcare, and institutional electrical work. And just this year, Rob Cestero, Vice President, and Steve Beebe, Operations Manager, officially become true equity partners alongside Brian.
“This is only the first step in a long-term plan to create more ownership opportunities for the people helping build this company,” said Brian. “As BFZ grows, we want our team to have the opportunity to grow with it and the challenge to own a piece of it. That’s how we build a stronger future for BFZ, our clients, and the partners who count on us every day.” The scale of the business has changed dramatically, but Brian believes the foundation remains the same: strong people, clear values, and a willingness to do the work properly.
The company now provides full-service electrical contracting across new builds, remodeling projects, large commercial construction, and multifamily developments. Clients work with BFZ Electric from preconstruction and design support through installation and project closeout, with services covering electrical contracts, wiring, lighting, receptacles, heating equipment, technology.
Large commercial new construction and major multifamily projects now account for much of the company’s work. As projects have increased in size and complexity, BFZ has invested heavily in preconstruction planning, design coordination, and prefabrication. “Our work is split between large commercial new construction and large multifamily new builds. Our ability to combine planning, design coordination, and prefabrication allows us to improve efficiency, maintain quality, and deliver projects on accelerated schedules,” Brian said.
Prefabrication has become one of the practical ways BFZ Electric turns planning into performance. By building components before they reach the jobsite, the company can reduce on-site manpower, improve coordination with other trades, and keep schedules moving in environments where delays quickly become expensive. The approach also reflects a broader willingness to challenge older construction habits when a better process is available.
The company’s growth has brought clear milestones, including the moment BFZ crossed $1 million in revenue after deciding to scale. For Brian, however, progress has rarely been defined by one dramatic achievement. Each project has pushed the company into new territory, expanding what the team can manage and what clients can expect. “Every job’s a new milestone, every time we step up our capabilities – a job that was a $1,000,000 job was a big job, now it’s not,” he said. “We haven’t aimed for any big milestones, just little milestones every day.”
“Every job’s a new milestone, every time we step up our capabilities – a job that was a $1,000,000 job was a big job, now it’s not.”
The opening of BFZ Electric’s new headquarters marks another step in that progression. After years of operating from a 4,000-square-foot office warehouse, the company has moved into a 21,000-square-foot facility designed to support the next phase of growth. The additional space gives project managers, designers, estimators, and field leadership room to work together more closely, while also strengthening the company’s prefabrication capabilities. “This gives us the capability to do more jobs, hire more people, and be more organized in the prefab shop and our office,” Brian said. “We can finally have a respectful office to bring customers into and a more enjoyable work environment for everyone here.”
For Carlos Puente, Business Development Manager for BFZ Electric, the new facility says something important about the company’s direction. “Now we can really maximize our pre-con and prefab expertise – that’s not something that you naturally see with a small company that is looking to scale up and invest – not only invest in the company, but invest in its people.
That investment in people is not separate from BFZ Electric’s operating model. It is the reason the company has been able to grow at the pace it has. Brian describes the company’s core values as the basis for hiring, training, and shaping the team. “Our core values of the company are what we base all our hiring and shaping the employees on – having the whole team aligned core values-wise, and trying to keep that culture strong in the company.”
BFZ Electric defines those values clearly: We Care, We See Challenges as Opportunities, and We Work with Energy & Commitment. In practice, they show up in how employees are treated, how problems are approached, and how the team responds when a project becomes difficult. Construction can be a demanding industry, and Brian is direct about the culture he does not want to replicate. “I think that’s the difference between a lot of contractors and us – a lot of people are very impersonal with their employees, the construction industry is a little bit of a shut up and work harder industry. We’re the opposite of that; we’re very encouraging,” he explained.
The company’s apprenticeship programs and training initiatives extend that outlook to tradespeople entering the profession. BFZ Electric sees long-term career development as part of the same responsibility that drives its project work. “Success in construction trades is ultimately about people, and we’ve always believed in investing in our team,” the team said. “We believe our employees are our greatest asset, and we’ve built a culture focused on growth, collaboration, and creating opportunities for people to succeed. The projects we complete are important, but the people behind them are what truly drive our success.”
Recent projects show how culture, planning, and technical capability combine in the field. The Connecticut Children’s Medical Center parking garage was different from much of BFZ Electric’s usual work, which often centers on multifamily wood construction or steel-framed office fit-outs. Built around precast concrete, the garage created a different sequencing challenge and placed much of BFZ’s work inside a compressed schedule. “It was a year-long project, but most of our work had to get done in six months because of the precast process,” Brian said. “It put us under a lot of stress, but we ended up with a happy client at the end of the year. We had to pull together – a lot of office guys were on site, mobilizing and working from there to help boost things along.”
At Bloomfield Storage, BFZ Electric delivered electrical work for 100,000 square feet of storage space in what Brian described as a smooth process. Prefabrication helped minimize on-site manpower, while strong coordination reduced clashes with other trades. “The quote from the client was that we were a breath of fresh air, so he wants us on other jobs because we were able to organize the job, push it, and leave it with our coordination efforts to make sure that there were no clashes with other trades, and they’re really happy.”
A separate project for Hamilton involved gutting, rewiring, and repurposing a 200,000-square-foot space into an office and aerospace site. The full design-build assignment moved from an empty starting point to drawings and then to a completed space, demonstrating BFZ Electric’s ability to manage both planning and execution. Multifamily work remains equally important, including Brainerd, a large mixed-use community with several major buildings built from all-wood construction over a podium parking garage. Off-site prefabrication again helped the team meet a tight schedule.
As BFZ Electric settles into its new facility, the company expects the rest of 2026 to remain busy. With several jobs already on the books, leadership is targeting year-over-year growth between 30% and 50%, a range the company has already been achieving. “The outlook for 2026 remains very positive. We continue to see strong opportunities throughout Connecticut across multifamily, healthcare, commercial, and industrial sectors. Our focus is on sustainable growth while maintaining the level of service and quality that both our partners and craftsmen expect,” the team said.
“As Connecticut continues to grow and evolve, we look forward to playing a role in helping build the communities and infrastructure that support that growth,” the team added. For BFZ Electric, the next phase will be built on the same principles that carried the company from a two-person operation to an $18 million contractor: care for the people doing the work, take on each challenge with energy, and keep building the capability to do the next job better than the last.
