Focus: Helping Cape Ann build — for 105 years

By Paul Sullivan
Correspondent

April 15, 2008 03:00 am

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Ask Joe Parisi, president of The Building Center in Gloucester, what the business carries and his easy answer is, "Everything."

His longer answer is, "We have 20,000 different items with just about everything for your home and garden, plus we have a full lumberyard to help carpenters and builders put up new homes, plus we have paint, plumbing, electrical supplies and household items."

Parisi says The Building Center has everything for professionals as well as do-it-your-selfers at its two stores, the main one at 1 Harbor Loop, the other on Route 22 in Essex.

If that's not enough, "We even have a gift store that carries items for wedding gifts, showers, house warmings" and this being Gloucester, "nautical collectibles," Parisi adds.

It's no wonder The Building Center has been around for 105 years and now is owned by a third generation of the Heberle family.

So, what are the most popular items?

Here's that word again:

"Everything," he says. "If you need it to build or fix up your home, we've got it."

The Building Center employs more than 60 people ranging from sales staff to experts who can tell the do-it-your-selfer just how to do the job. There are five licensed builders on hand to help with more complex jobs. And the salespeople are also well experienced and well trained in what the average person needs.

"A lot of us are licensed contractors, and this is not just a supply house," Parisi says. "We're in the construction business, and we do estimating and engineering."

He says The Building Center is in a partnership with several professional contractors "and we try to help make their job go smoothly," Parisi said. "That's our professional piece, and we've been here a long time."

Asked about new trends, Parisi answers immediately: "We're seeing consumers driven by the Internet. For example, they see a roof shingle on line, come here and say, 'Why can't we have this?'

"It's a different world for us, and we have to keep a lot of sources available because the breadth of the categories is so big," Parisi says. "What used to be one item now has four or five versions."

Parisi also said people now research a product online to make sure they get a good quality. But that's no problem for The Building Center, he says, because of its size.

"We can afford to have a big inventory, and if we don't have it, we find it for them," Parisi says.

He notes customers now make use of video and digital cameras.

"Before they just told us what they wanted under the sink and now they show us what they want or what they are trying to fix up," he says.

The Building Center also delivers: "We've been all over the North Shore and as far away as Ayer and Hingham. We don't go looking for it, but if our customer goes there, we'll go there," Parisi says.

A Gloucester guy, Parisi has been at The Building Center for 25 years, and in that time, he's done "just about everything." A graduate of Gloucester High School and Wentworth Institute in Boston, he's been president for seven years.

And like many of the people who work there, he's been active in the community. Parisi is a past president of both the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce and the Gloucester Rotary Club.

But Parisi doesn't much like the spotlight.

"This company is not about me," he says. "It's about everybody who works here."

Indeed. Many of his people are members of Rotary Clubs and Chambers of Commerce in Gloucester, Essex and Manchester. They are also active in their churches, youth baseball, Pop Warner football and Habitat for Humanity.

And speaking of baseball, Parisi said proudly that his company's Babe Ruth team has won the league championship in 2006 and '08.

Oh yes, and about the gift shop: Harbor Loop Gifts was added in 1960 and has been growing ever since.

It seems to appeal not only to tourists looking for Gloucester memorabilia, but to locals as well.

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