RBB Electric Inc.

RBB Electric Inc. (RBB) considers itself a family business, even though not all of the company’s principals happen to be blood related. RBB was founded in 2002 to provide an electrical contracting services that run the gamut of residential, commercial, industrial and maintenance. The company has amassed a strong client base in just 10 years simply by providing the kind of service that clients can’t help but tell others about. Above all, RBB believes that going the extra mile for customers should be standard. After all, investing in the success of its customers helps the team invest in its own success.

“We’ll do just about anything – from replacing a light bulb to high-voltage work,” laughs Ron Rieger, owner of RBB. Rieger shares ownership of RBB with wife Cyndi, daughter Robin and her husband Chad Benson, son Jon and his wife Theresia, nephew Craig Solway and wife Nichole, as well as close family friends Tim and Lisa Borgen. Together, the Borgen, Rieger and Solway families set the tone for the entire RBB team, emphasizing the importance of keeping capabilities diverse and customer service intimate.

RBB is based out of Grand Forks, N.D., and operates satellite branches in Bismarck and Fargo, N.D., as well as Crookston, Minn., to serve clients across the states. RBB has the capabilities to handle traditional electrical contracting projects as well as high-voltage work for industrial customers and even low-voltage, data, communications and networking projects. The company employs a handful of Registered Communications Distribution Designers certified through BICSI.

Even if demand for RBB’s services exceeds its resources, the company will call in support from a select handful of regional partners like South Dakota-based Muth Electric Inc. to fill in the gaps. The reason why RBB has been able to survive and thrive during the past few years is its focus on meeting the needs of its existing client base and staying out of fiercely competitive open bid projects.

Expansive Electrical Expertise

One of RBB’s most recently completed projects is the new Altru Hospital in Grand Forks, N.D. “When we started work on the project in 2004 the hospital was still owned by Doctor’s Hospital, but Altru came in and purchased the hospital two weeks before opening,” expands Rieger. The facility adds an extra 65 beds to the Grand Forks area, all in private rooms with 55-inch flat screen TVs and even jacuzzi bath tubs, but the center scaled back in other areas – forgoing a trauma center and open heart surgery practice, for example – to focus on filling existing service gaps in the Grand Forks market. Even so, the facility supplies much-needed medical support to the area and RBB’s portion of the project totaled over $4 million in design-build electrical work.

RBB also began work on the new Gorecki Alumni Center at the University of North Dakota in 2012, which will be the state’s first LEED Platinum-certified building. The building was designed by Grand Forks-based JLG Architects and is estimated to cost over $12 million. The center has been designed to become the gateway of the university’s campus while still setting high standards for energy efficiency and sustainability for the entire school, which was rated as one of the country’s greenest schools according to the Princeton Review.

Pursuing Green Growth

The RBB team also began work in April 2012 on new dormitories for the University of Minnesota Crookston that have also been designed to achieve LEED certification. The decision to pursue LEED certification was actually influenced by two students who began a petition and gathered over 300 signatures to show the student body’s support during the initial planning stages of a different dormitory in 2008. The students ultimately found a way for that building’s design to achieve LEED certification for a lower cost than the original design, which propelled the university to pursue even more aggressive sustainability goals for its buildings.

Other recently completed projects in RBB’s portfolio include a senior housing facility, a 52,000-square foot office building for Hess Oil Company, and major electrical rehabilitation work to the North Dakota State Fairgrounds in Minot, N.D., which were badly damaged by flooding in summer 2011.

Rieger foresees a wealth of opportunity heading in RBB’s direction within the next few years, making the company’s biggest challenge finding enough qualified and experienced professionals to meet increasing demand. RBB will celebrate its 10-year anniversary in May 2012, and whether the company opts to celebrate with a bang or an intimate gathering, the team’s reputation for providing reliable electrical service with a smile will be reason enough for RBB Electric Inc. to celebrate.