Company of the year
Luizzi Cos. started as a paving operation. It’s since grown into a construction and real estate company with nearly $1 billion of projects in the pipeline.
Equipment behind the Luizzi Cos. headquarters at the Lincoln Industrial Park.
Mike Alix was a 28-year-old laborer at Luizzi Cos. when he badly injured his back while driving surveying stakes into asphalt at a new Marriott hotel being built in Saratoga Springs.
He needed emergency surgery and then time to recuperate.
The business owner, Peter Luizzi Jr., would pick up Alix at his Green Island home. They would drive around looking at work sites, spending hours together daily.
“That was a turning point in our relationship,” said Alix, now the 39-year-old company vice president. “He was invested in me.”
Luizzi Jr., 59, has put his faith, hard work and money into many people and projects since buying out his family’s paving business more than two decades ago.
What started with a paver, a couple of dump trucks and the hot, grueling job of laying blacktop has evolved into a large, diversified company with 160 employees, a new headquarters in Colonie and about $1 billion worth of real estate developments under review throughout the Albany region.
The roughly $400 million portfolio of completed construction includes 750 apartments and nearly 350,000 square feet of warehouses on Railroad Avenue in Colonie and at a new industrial park on Lincoln Avenue near Watervliet.
Donna Abbott-Vlahos | Albany Business Review
Luizzi has cultivated close business relationships with bankers to finance his deals, but hardly any outside investors.
“A lot of developers will hit up [an investment] fund or a hedge fund or some type of avenue,” said Chuck Pafundi Jr., head of real estate development. “Out of all the projects we have right now, at most there’s maybe a project with a very minor share partner. Everything we’re doing is on our own.”
On any given day, Luizzi can be found at the wheel of a paving machine laying blacktop as he’s done for much of his life; telling architects and designers his vision for the next apartment, retail or warehouse development; or bouncing ideas off his top-line staff.
“It’s like, ‘This is what I want to do,'” Pafundi said, describing interactions with his boss. “It’s a 15-minute conversation and then you go back to the engineers. You go through a handful of sketch plans: hates this, loves that, change this, move that.”
Where you won’t find Luizzi is sitting for an interview or posing for a photograph just because his company is being recognized for its accomplishments.
His humility keeps him away from the spotlight.
“He does not like the exposure,” Alix said. “He’s not comfortable with anything about him. Honestly, it’s not about me, either. I don’t like the fancy suit-and-tie stuff. Myself and Peter, we put our work boots on in the morning and go to work.”
Alix is quick to credit the truck drivers, road pavers, pipe layers, site superintendents and others who toil daily for what’s still the heart of the company — an asphalt and site prep business that had more than $60 million worth of public and private contracts last year.
“They get no shining light,” Alix said. “It’s like an offensive lineman in a football game. These people are why we are what we are. This has afforded the opportunity for the real estate.”
Donna Abbott-Vlahos | Albany Business Review
Alix started working for Luizzi Cos. about 16 years ago when he was hired to plow snow at Albany International Airport.
When he had the back injury, Luizzi suggested Alix work in the office. He was hesitant, preferring to remain in the field. But he decided it was the right move, and it became a turning point for the company.
“I’m in the office for maybe a week or two and he says, ‘I think we need a fresh start around here,'” Alix said. “He fires the estimator and project manager and says we’re going to start fresh. He physically sat with me every day and we learned how to bid work.”
Two to three years later, Alix was promoted to vice president. Business volume grew. With Alix as his point-person in the office, Luizzi was able to focus on other opportunities.
“Prior to me coming into the office, Peter was doing this essentially on his own,” Alix said. “Talk about a guy that would answer 100 phone calls while he’s on the back of a paver, with a rake and a shovel, wheelbarrowin’, trying to manage however many guys at that point. I think that when I came into the office it gave Peter the confidence and assurance we were in it together. It was a ‘OK, let’s grow this thing’ type mentality.”
The biggest example to date of how Luizzi Cos. has grown well beyond its roots is Starbuck Island.
The $65 million mixed-use development was built in the village of Green Island on the Hudson River across from downtown Troy. The multi-story apartment complex, commercial space and amenities have transformed land that for years was a collection of oil tanks and other industrial uses.
It was an ambitious project, to say the least.
Alix remembers the day they met with village officials to talk about the development potential on the island.
“The minute he looks at the piece on the map, he said, ‘We’ll get back to you,'” Alix said. “We leave the meeting and drive by and he looks at it and says, ‘I absolutely love it. We have to have this piece.’ The next day he calls me and says, ‘Do whatever you have to do to chase down that piece of property.’ I said no problem.”
Luizzi Cos.
President: Peter Luizzi, Jr.
Background: Peter Luizzi & Bros Contracting Inc. was started by the late Peter Luizzi and his wife, Carole. Their son, Peter Luizzi Jr., runs the company today. Luizzi Jr. started buying real estate in the late 1980s and developing it in the early 1990s. The company also grew beyond paving residential and small commercial sites to include property management, full-service construction and large-scale development. The divisions are collectively under the Luizzi Cos. umbrella.
Total real estate development portfolio: About $400 million
Total apartments: 750
Warehouses: Nearly 350,000 square feet, with another 150,000 square feet in construction pipeline
Value of paving/site work contracts: $60 million-plus (2021)
Employees: 160, including 80 full-time
Residential developments include: Stoneledge Terrace in Troy, Rivers Ledge in Niskayuna and Starbuck Island in Green Island
Total value of projects in development/municipal review: About $1 billion. Examples include One-Four-Six Marketplace in Halfmoon (328 luxury apartments with commercial space and amenities); The Woods at West Mountain in Queensbury (year-round resort with more than 200 residences); former Ford Motor Co. site in Green Island (more than 200 apartments and amenities)