Synergy Construction Group

I cannot say enough wonderful things about Synergy and their work on my brand new fitness studio, Kick@55 Fitness. They literally saved our business. We were under a huge time constraint and they were able to complete our job in record time, without sacrificing quality of work. Jon Ruzich, our general contractor, is super-​professional, calm, and financially savvy. He met our our budgetary needs while providing us with everything we needed. Ron Smith helped manage the job on-​site and also possessed the same calm demeanor. If I had a question, criticism or question, he was always open to discussing.
Mike Pineli, one of the owners, spent one year visiting different potential locations with us and advised us on our decision. He was very honest with his recommendation and did not allow us to lease a «lemon». In the end, we selected a space that required less of a build-​out than other locations. Mike wasn’t thinking about his own financial gains but the best interest of us, his client.
If you are looking for a contractor that has integrity and places the client’s best interest above their own, then look no further than Synergy Construction Group.
Please contact me directly if you want more information. I would be happy to answer any questions.

Great group of business men. I have had the opportunity to work with Phil and Tony on a few Shared Office projects around the city. I hear the other owners are just as great too. Anyhow, I look forward to a growing relationship with this construction company and many more projects to come! Oh and Tony’s father Sam and brother Sammy are great to work with on the job sites as well. Real optimistic group of leaders!

Synergy bought the condemned crack house next to my apartment building just a few short months ago (much to our delight). They completely demolished the building, dug and poured the foundation, and are now up to framing out the second floor. These guys never show up before 7am, never stay past 4pm, never block parking spots or clog our one way street.
They are awesome and I love them, even though we’ve never met.

The worst experience of our lives. I could go into hours worth of explanation and, if you want to PM me, I will. Suffice it say at this point, though, that we spent nearly $ 100k with these goofballs and they didn’t even hang the cabinets level. They broke our boiler, threw away hardwood lumber original to the house when we weren’t around and then replaced it with paint-​grade trim. They would leave for weeks at a time without doing any work. Much of this probably stems from the idiot they had doing estimates (Roof Estimate: $ 7,800, Roof Actual: $ 19,000). Either way, there was no question they were out of their league. There were 2 employees that I enjoyed working with but neither was provided any autonomy or «allowed» to fix the myriad issues others created.
Synergy seems to have learned how their business by watching every negative stereotype about contractors on television and then emulating them.
It would be one thing to just have to endure poor workmanship, disorganization and a snail-​slow pace but it didn’t end there. Because I work from home, I also had to endure hours of stories from the project manager and employees about how terrible the owner of the company is and how terribly I was getting screwed (according to his own employees). Just as an example, our plans (from their cut-​rate architect who they made fun of after he did the work?) called for a header between two rooms where a wall was removed. They discovered the joists ran in such a way that a header isn’t necessary so rather than skipping it (like we asked), they installed a header BUT DIDN’T STRUCTURALLY ATTACH IT. It literally is a couple 2X10s sitting on top of some 2x4s with no structural benefit. They told me it was necessary so they could create a rectangular drywall «arch» between the two rooms.
For the record, this was a 203K renovation loan and this was one of the only contractors available for that type of work (it requires certification of some sort). The Guaranteed Rate loan officer (Christine DePaepe) that recommended them was obvious «in bed» with them. She not only gave them glowing reviews and referred other people to them in our neighborhood (we’ve talked, they also got ripped off) but her office wouldn’t help at all when we were seeking a solution. Heck, not a surprise since she didn’t even show up to our closing which was delayed by several hours due to missing paperwork from HER office. But that’s another review for another day…
I would caution anyone against working with this company. Feel free to email me if you need additional details or would like to see their work.

What else can you say about a dedicated team of well seasoned professionals that go above and beyond to satisfy all of your construction needs. From the top down, Synergy is a dedicated partner for your construction project. They are top notch when it comes to value engineering and finding solutions where others fail or fall short. I would recommend Synergy Construction Group to anyone looking to get a good product at a fair price.

Our upscale 4 unit condo building had a very bad fire that caused tremendous damage to all units and left the building uninhabitable for 9 months. Our units owners decided to hire Synergy Construction Group (SCG) to complete all the work, which included two units that were total gut rehabs and substantial rehab on the other two. SCG was very helpful and knowledgable on all steps along the way. They were very crucial with negotiating with the insurance companies and fought for what they believed needed to be replaced of repaired. My wife and I had not done any sort of large home improvement/​repair projects such as this and SCG was very helpful, candid and knowledgable about products, trends and practicality. Other than the things out of their control they pretty much followed the schedule they provided and delivered our unit on time. Overall we were very happy with the way out unit turned and the craftsmanship that went into the job.

My clients were referred to Synergy from their loan officer for a 203k renovation loan. It has now been 6 months since we have closed that my client is forced to pay mortgage payments on a building that has a demolished interior, and no work has been started. My client has commented on several occasions of how unprofessional they are and the work has yet to be started.
When choosing a 203k contractor, consider other alternatives.

Maybe you get what you pay for: Synergy was not the lowest, but a low bidder for our large renovation project. When they finished we had a list of hundreds of items not done properly or done in a sloppy way. Yes, they came back (it took 3 times) but they didn’t agree to fix everything we thought they should, and thus, many items are still sloppy. I would not recommend them; luckily my husband who is quite picky but is also quite knowledgeable, was able to notice many of the things they did wrong. And they used a subcontractor to «fix» the steam system, who clearly knew nothing about how to work with steam, and messed up the system so that there was no way it could ever have worked, and required thousands of dollars out of our pocket to have remediation work done; they lied and said the system had been working, but that is impossible according to the expert we later hired.

We selected Synergy Construction Group to build our home in the West Andersonville /​Edgewater area and we were very happy with Synergy and our new home. Our project was a major 203K renovation that involved demolishing the old house down to the foundation and building an affordable, modern, fun small home on the existing foundation plus a new garage.
We worked collaboratively with Synergy and our architect during the initial bid, scope and contact planning phase to ensure that the project could be delivered within our budget. Synergy was flexible with us as we explored a few design iterations with our architect. They also met our extremely tight deadlines with the bank to submit paperwork required for our 203K loan.
We closed on the home in late January 2012, demolition took place in late February and we received our building permits in early April. Foundation repair started in late April. Construction/​framing began in mid-​May. Synergy completed the home on time in early September including all city inspections and we moved in September 15, 2012. The project was completed on time and at our planned budget.
As with any big construction job there were a few setback /​hiccups along the way such as subcontractor scheduling, a broken window, extreme weather, etc…) but Synergy was able to work around these issues and keep the project on track and communicate with us along the way. We appreciated that they were patient with all our phone calls and questions throughout the project.
As part of the house turnover prior to our move, Synergy provided a binder with the house warranty, a preventative maintenance guide, subcontractor list, and a comprehensive set of all product and materials information.
We highly recommend Synergy Construction Group.

We used Synergy for our 203K rehab project on our house. They were recommended by our bank.
At first everything seemed great. Tony came out and bid us to do a whole ton of stuff on the house. Told us a 4 – 6 week timeline, all seemed fine.
We ended up dropping back from doing a 45K project to doing a 23K project, which is still ALOT of money!
Unfortunately SYNERGY didn;t obviously feel that way. I was told that my job wasn;t worth explaining the details of each item to. I am sorry, the money is mine, and I would like to know where it is going…
The crew itself was wonderful. Ron and the rest of the guys were very friendly. The work done by Synergy’s crew seemed to be quality. They hire out subcontractors for all painting, concrete, and plaster work. I was ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ with that work, concrete was good, painting not so much. For example— our windows were not glazed they were caulked (which believe me was re-​done!). Also, our input was never asked for and when it was offered, it was not listened to.
Finally, against my better judgement we signed off on the final payments be sent in when there was still just a tiny bit of work left to be done (a broken window here, missing neighbor stones there, etc…) and then it took months and several emails and phone calls to get anyone back out to do the work. As far as I know, my neighbor is still missing her items, which I doubt will be resolved.
All in all it is sad, we have plans to do a ton more work, and the workmanship of this company was pretty good for the plumbing, electrical, etc. all that major stuff… but their customer service just sucks. I want a contractor who not only does good work, but listens to me! This is my house and I did not get to have a say in the paint color used on the windows, the types of door knobs put on my doors, or the location of my outlets! I will not use Synergy again.