End of an Era: 100+ Years in Pleasant Grove/Lindon
The other night, after closing on the sale, I sat outside and looked up at my dad’s old office — dark, vacant. I thought about the countless hours I spent there with him, counseling on life and business as I was building my own. My dad was my greatest mentor and example, and that office held so many memories.
The sale of this commercial campus on 17.5 acres marked the end of a chapter that started over 100 years ago, when Niels Fugal Sons Company was founded next door to a blacksmith shop my great-grandfather Niels built with his brothers in Pleasant Grove at the turn of the 19th century. What began there grew into one of the leading telecom and natural gas construction service companies in the Western United States, working with major corporations, municipalities, and utility companies. The company eventually outgrew that original site, building the industrial headquarters campus at 1005 South Main in the early 1990s — the buildings pictured here.
My grandfather Boyd carried the business forward. My late father, Dan Fugal, acquired it with his brother, Guy — later the Mayor of Pleasant Grove — in the 1980s, and led it into a new era: installing tens of thousands of miles of fiber optic infrastructure that helped connect the West, at its peak employing as many as 700 people. As a teenager, I spent summers out of town on the company’s construction crews, digging ditches and learning the value of hard work and independence — lessons that stuck with me long after. They sold the business to Dycom Industries (NYSE: DY) in 2000, but stayed involved for many years afterward, and the Fugal name remained on it.
The property itself was sold to an investor five years ago, shortly before my dad passed, to help settle estate matters. Even then, none of us imagined the business itself would ever leave. Earlier this year, Dycom relocated operations to Salem, Utah — closing a chapter that spanned four generations and more than a century in Pleasant Grove and Lindon.
I’m proud of the legacy my great-grandfather Niels, my grandfather Boyd, my father Dan, and my uncle Guy built. It shaped this community, and it shaped me. My dad and Guy were named EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2001, and I received the same honor in 2016 — making us, as far as I know, one of the only father-son pairs to win the award in completely different industries.
I’m pleased to share that the property has now been purchased by MD Property Services and partners — a premier full-service landscaping company with over 30 years of its own history — for their next chapter. Grateful for the work of Ben Wheat (Roderick Realty), Jarrod Hunt (Colliers), and my nephew Mckay Fugal in getting this done.
Here’s to new beginnings, built on strong foundations.