A Super Fixer-Upper
PENN TWP — Having outgrown its site in Valencia, Frank J. Zottola Construction is rehabilitating a pair of buildings on Route 8 as its new corporate offices, and plans to operate from the new location by March.
Zottola Construction is fixing up the two buildings at 595 and 597 Pittsburgh Road, which formerly housed Northtowne Motors, according to Clinton Bonetti, land use officer for Penn Township.
The southern building is 5,280 square feet and contains offices, a showroom and a service area, according to a real estate listing for the property on LoopNet.com. The northern building is 3,173 square feet and has a garage, service area and paint booth.
The asking price for the 9.7-acre site was $1.1 million.
A fenced-in area to the north of the buildings is not a new construction site, but a lot where Northtowne Motors stored its vehicles, the same purpose it will fill for Zottola, according to Linda Kalina, office manager and corporate secretary for Zottola.
“The company is growing in volume, the amount of work we are doing,” Kalina said.
“We are subcontractor for Verizon, Comcast, Sibertech, and the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority. We need more office space, and we needed more yard space. Basically, we have just outgrown the space we have been using.”
The business’ current property on Quiet Lane in Valencia, with 3,400 square feet of office space and 12,000 square feet of warehouse space, is listed with Howard Hanna at $780,000.
Kalina said Zottola Construction also owns a property on Smallman Street in Pittsburgh, which it uses as a staging area for jobs and storage.
The company is running out of room for equipment that is either being stored during the winter or repaired by an in-house mechanic.
“We’re looking to be in (the new location) by the time we gear up for the coming construction season ... hopefully, by the end of March,” Kalina said.
Zottola Construction employs about 75 employees at the height of its construction season, including seven members of its administrative staff.
