When Nick Brienza started what was to become the Pioneer Building Materials business on Denton Avenue in New Hyde Park in 1954, he was a diesel mechanic with no grand vision for the business.
Today his grandsons, Richard and Jonathan, run a business that sells lumber, brick and virtually every other form of building material.
“It started out as a mason yard,” Pioneer president Richard Brienza said of his grandfather’s humble beginnings.
Nick Brienza maintained his business as a diesel mechanic and expanded into selling sand that was being mined at a sight that is now occupied by a golf driving range on Denton Avenue. After he started selling sand, customers started inquiring about purchasing cement, brick and construction blocks and the business began to expand.
Richard’s and Jonathan’s father joined with their grandfather in the business after finishing his U.S. Army duty in 1962 and sought to diversify the materials that the business stocked and supplied.
“My father was more interested in building a business,” Richard Brienza said.
The core of the business remained masonry and ready mixed concrete, until Richard joined his father in the business in 1991 after a brief career as a commercial pilot. His younger brother Jonathan, who is now vice president of Pioneer, followed his lead in 2000. They already knew their way around the 321 Denton Avenue location from the time they spent there while growing up.
“As kids we hung out here and did some odds and ends here,” Richard said.
As they gradually took over the business from their father, the two brothers grew the business with new locations and started stocking lumber in response to customer demand. They also added a stoneyard and hardscape for decorative outdoor projects.
Their business had been primarily with contractors over the years, but that began to change, particularly with the current economic downturn.
Richard estimates that the business grew 200 percent since 1991 despite slowing down over the past five or six years during the economic downturn.
The downturn, he said, has also resulted in a change in their mix of customers.
“Now we see a shift toward homeowners buying their own materials,” he said. “You have some days when there are good projects and some days when you can tell we’re still dragging out of a recession.”
Brienza said he now sees Web-savvy consumers seeking to save themselves
money on materials for projects being done by contractors. He also finds that many of this customers are now trying to eliminate contractors entirely.
“We still have a lot of do-it-yourselfers coming in,” Brienza said.
Brienza said the contracting end of the business has picked up lately in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and the nor’easter.
“Unfortunately, that’s bringing us work. A lot of contractors are bidding on or have contracts for storm repairs,” he said.
In the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, Pioneer supplied customers with pumps, generators and also sold plenty of sandbags to South Shore customers.
Pioneer, he said, was one of the few places to have them in stock.
Brianza said he and his brother also track the popularity of various building materials. Perhaps because of the hurricane and nor’easter, brick has been among Pioneer’s “hot” materials.
“We do a lot of brick houses,” Richard said.
Pioneer’s customer base spans a large territory, from New Hyde Park to Mineola, the Willistons and the North Shore, Brianza said.
His brother Jon said he feels a particular pride about their family business “every morning when I turn the lights on.”
They also take a particular pride in taking time with their customers, inquiring about their needs and walking them through options displayed for patios and other construction projects in front of their main store.
“It’s nice to help people with projects,” Richard said. “It’s nice to see what you’ve created, to see the business grow.”
His primary role is as the inside man in the business, building business relationships and implementing new directions for the business.
“I enjoy creating thing, putting ideas into practice,” Richard said.
His brother Jon is the outside man who enjoys interacting with customers.
“I like being out in the yard. I like being with the customers. I’m a little more hands-on,” Jon said.
Together they’re maintaining a family legacy that has thrived since an enterprising diesel mechanic started plying his trade more than a half century ago.
