Phoenix Construction Group is a family owned & operated remodeling company serving the Greater St. Louis area, with 25+ years of experience turning outdated kitchens, baths, and floors into spaces our clients love.
Ira Souders III didn't grow up dreaming of kitchens. He grew up in Festus, Missouri — small-town roots, the kind of place that teaches you to work with your hands and finish what you start.
His first job was as a mechanic, and it was there that his passion took root — a love for fixing things, for taking something broken and making it work again. That instinct followed him everywhere he went, and it eventually led him into kitchens.
He started at the bottom: installing cabinets, refacing what was tired and worn, building new from scratch. But Ira noticed something most installers don't — the details nobody else catches. That eye for precision didn't go unnoticed, and soon he was promoted to measure technician, the guy whose numbers had to be exactly right before a single board was cut.
In 2020, one of the nation's largest subcontractors came calling. They needed someone to open a brand-new location — and they wanted Ira. So he packed up his wife, Hannah, and their two boys and moved to Central Florida, chasing an opportunity most people only get once. It was there, surrounded by blueprints and before-and-afters, that Ira fell in love — not just with the work, but with the entire design process. Watching a space transform from forgotten to unforgettable became his calling.
In 2022, Ira made his next bold move. He stepped away from the company that brought him to Florida and decided to build something entirely his own. He called it Phoenix — because that's exactly what it was: something new, rising from the ashes of everything he'd learned, ready to be built again on his own terms.
He didn't stay small for long. Ira and his crew expanded their reach from Central Florida all the way down to Miami, building a reputation that traveled with every project they touched. It wasn't just a business growing — it was a name people started to trust.
But success in Florida came with a quiet ache. His kids were growing up without their cousins. Without Sunday dinners at Grandma's. Without the people who make Festus feel like home.
So in mid-2026, Ira made the kind of decision that defines a man more than any business ever could: he chose family. He moved Hannah and the kids back to Festus, Missouri — back to the aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents he wanted his children to grow up beside.
And he didn't give up a single thing he'd built. Instead, he expanded — opening a new Phoenix location and bringing everything he'd learned in Florida home with him.
Today, Ira brings that same hands-on craftsmanship, that same obsessive attention to detail, and that same love of design to every kitchen, bath, and floor he touches — because for Ira, this has never just been about renovations. It's about building something that lasts, for families just like his own.