The Bonacios: The Spa City’s Power Couple

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The sage-green reception room at Bonacio Construction Inc. is serene on a recent Wednesday morning. Phones ring softly in the background and a silent slideshow plays on a mounted flat screen television. The images bear witness to the company’s exponential growth over its 21 years: shots of high-rise condos in progress, ground broken for a new retail space, interior shots of elegantly decorated living rooms and master bedrooms.

Sun streams through the picture window that overlooks Borders Bookstore and beyond that, a slew of residential and commercial properties within the city that bear either the Bonacio name or its architectural signature.

Suddenly the fourth-floor elevator doors part and the company’s nucleus dashes into the office, charging the once silent room with the adrenaline rush of a major deal about to be closed. Even by Bonacio standards, it’s a project of epic proportions, seven years in the making that Sonny Bonacio explains amounts to millions of dollars, hundreds of jobs, and most importantly, another social and economic boost for his native Spa City.

Julie Bonacio emerges from her office to get an update from her husband. They confer quietly for a few moments before heading into a meeting, followed by an on-the-run lunch, and then, if all goes off without a hitch, attending the closing of their latest and most ambitious project: Market Center at Railroad Place, at the site of the current Price Chopper.

Under the Bonacio vision, the new facility will be the first new apartment complex in the city in more than a decade and will include a ground floor Price Chopper and four other retailers topped by five floors of apartments with market rate rents.

“This has been a long project,” said Sonny, shaking his head. “But we’ve worked very diligently, and we never give up on anything.”

An understatement if there ever was one, considering the 43-year-old got his start in the construction business literally from the ground up.

“I started pushing a broom for Gerry Robusto at age 15,” he recalled. That led to work with other construction companies, including Farone and Schultz. It was a period of apprenticeship that allowed Sonny the hands-on learning upon which he eventually built his company.

“First it was building decks, then I learned about fire restoration, then it was framing,” he said. “I went where the work was. When my boss, Jimmy Toleman fell and broke both arms, I had to learn how to build complicated wood structural framing, and it’s knowledge I use to this day.”

When Sonny and Julie started dating, she was working in sales for her father's manufacturing sales company. After Sonny and Julie married, she got her real estate license through Roohan Realty and began selling restored homes and high-rise condos through Bonacio Construction Inc.

“There’s no typical customer for us,” she said. “Our properties range from $100,000 to multi-millions of dollars. We get people buying from Florida, Kentucky, New York City, Dubai and locally.

The couple admittedly faced more than a little financial uncertainty when the economy took a nosedive two years ago. “The past 24 months have been very stressful,” Julie said. “The whole industry changed; banks tightened up and stop lending money. We’ve never worked so hard, but we learned from it.”

The couple never had a master plan to evolve their company into what it is today. Instead, they describe the growth as a natural progression of following their instincts and listening to the pulse of what their customers want. “There’s no secret. You just need to move quickly with changing times and follow the needs of your clients,” Sonny said.

“And you’ve got to follow the niches,” Julie added. “We’ve gone from historical restoration to high rises, to commercial properties to storage buildings. Sonny likes to make beautiful. He has an excellent eye for design and can walk into something and see where it needs loving. Then he recreates it and makes it better than it was before.

“We get bored when there’s not a new project coming up,” Julie said with a smile. “We’re always thinking of the next challenge.”

With impressive financial success has come very little change, according to Sonny, who was born Alfio Bonacio Jr. and graduated from Saratoga Springs High School in 1985.

“This is how I like to dress,” he said, pointing out his baseball cap and jeans. And I hate my office … I’d much rather be out there in the field. Last night I was in a plow, cleaning up one of my properties. And Saturday I was heaving ice chunks off the roof with my sons Will and Luca.

Julie said many of the company’s 100-plus employees have been with them for more than 20 years. “We’ve always stepped up to the plate and swung,” Sonny said. “That’s just how we were raised — to work for what you have. I just enjoy creating architecture, jobs and a tax base for our city; this is where we were raised.”



Downtime

The couple live in downtown Saratoga Springs with their three children, Gianna, Will and Luca. “We love living in town so we can walk to the park or to restaurants,” said Julie. They have a second home on Lake George where Sonny loves to boat during summer months and snowmobile in the winter.

What Julie and Sonny love channeling their free time and energy into most is time with their children. “You don’t get this time back when they’re young,” said Sonny. “We love going to their games…or just having dinner with them.”

“Oh my God, Sonny loves to cook! I’ll set a pretty table and get great bottle of wine,” said Julie with a laugh. “He and Gianna they are off the charts. He makes a great red sauce and can whip anything together. Gianna was making Eggs Benedict at age 7…the other day she made an amazing balsamic reduction sauce.”

“I guess that comes from my childhood,” said Sonny. “Dinner was family time. If you missed dinner, you better come back with a cast on.”

“Our kids get excited about our new buildings,” said Julie. “We teach them values, they have their weekly chores to do. Luca has told us he wants to get into our plumbing business when he’s older.”

Julie lauds the support of her parents and Sonny’s when it comes to helping out with the kids.” We couldn’t do it without them,” she said. “We love knowing that if we have to work late hours, they’re with the grandparents.”

And while it’s not particularly Sonny’s cup of tea to spend an evening in a tuxedo, he gamely plays along with Julie’s love of glamour, and a good cause. “Julie loves to dress up, but she’s just as happy on an Artica snowmobile,” he said with a smile.

Both agree that the yin-yang nature of their partnership ultimately helps maintain an even keel in business and personal realms.

“We couldn’t do it this long if it weren’t fun,” she said. “But there are days when the pressure is intense. When Sonny gets that little vein popping in his forehead, I know it’s time to take him away from the office for the afternoon. We’ll drive to Vermont for lunch or head downtown for a drink.”

“I’m lucky, I have myself surrounded by women who love me,” he said of his inner circle, which, besides Julie, includes Kathy Gosier, Bonacio’s General Manager for 20 years. When they tell me it’s time to go away, I listen. And then I come back refocused and recharged.”