Another facelift for the Square?
Published on January 30th, 2008
STONEHAM, MA - Stoneham High graduate Frank Petrillo and his Italian immigrant father Aquilino built their Petrillo and Son Corporation on a tandem landscaping and masonry work over the last 30 years, but the father-and-son team took a giant leap into the property development business last Thursday morning.
Petrillo leveled the one-story building at 411 Main Street that housed Highland Printing for over 30 years, and plans to build a 20,000 square foot, four-story commercial building on the spot with retail along the street level, three upper floors designed for office space and a 10-car parking garage below the building. The building is 25,000 total square feet when combined with the parking facility planned below the building.
"I have this idea of the way the building is going to look in my head, and that is all I see when I look around at what looks like Ground Zero right now," said Petrillo, surveying the bricks, broken pieces of wood and piles of collected rubble that are the only remnants of a building that was also once the holding area for the Stoneham Police Department. "It's going to be brand new and have all the amenities, but it's going to look like it's been in the Square for 100 years. This will be another beautiful new building that's really going to improve the square."
Petrillo plans on utilizing brick, granite and cement for much of the building and has nothing but high compliments for the host of town officials he's dealt with within the town since getting wheels moving on the project.
"Everybody has been great: the Zoning Board, the Planning Board, the Selectmen, the Building Inspector," said Petrillo. "You hear things and people warning you about stuff before you start a project, but I've had nothing but good experiences. The police and fire department were great when they came down here for the Monday morning demolition."
Petrillo has talked to several retail outlets about taking over the retail space when it's ready - his estimates say that he'll be ready for tenants to start moving by late next fall/early winter - and has already had preliminary talks with Starbucks about possibly bringing their franchise to downtown Stoneham. Petrillo was also excited about the possibility of a local bank opting to take over the space when his work is finished.
Petrillo started the landscaping portion of the family business when he was an eighth grader at Stoneham Middle School and would mow the lawns of neighbors for $10, and the business has done nothing but grow since those Saturday morning and afternoons spent manicuring lawns. The company has clients all over the Metro Boston area and is headquartered in a building along Route 28 in North Reading.
Petrillo estimates that the project will cost over $2 million by the time construction is finished, but wanted to make clear that he'll continue to maintain the successful landscaping and masonry business that's been built up over the last two decades.
"We have a healthy business going together and I'm surrounded by friends and family and good people that I trust in my company," said Petrillo, nodding toward his father as he worked to clear bricks out of the Main Street site. "I was looking for a new challenge and fitting this building into this little spot on Main Street definitely qualified as a challenge. I get up at 4 a.m. every morning ready to go because I'm so excited to get this building up and help the revitalization that's been going on in the square."
Building records and historic photos indicate that the building is well over 200 years-old and was originally four stories, but was unchanged over the last three decades as the home of Harry Paicopolis' printing shop.
"I had one night where I had some second thoughts, but it was full speed ahead once that truck started tearing the building apart last week," said Petrillo. "I'm rolling the dice a little bit, but, hey, what's life all about if you don't take a chance every once in a while."
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