Building Happiness Back Into Communities - Luizzi Companies
Written by Pauline Müller
Living in close-knit communities is a historic human preference that was largely challenged and discarded by city planners in the 1960s and onwards. While cityscapes were punctuated with millions of high-rise apartment buildings the world over, creating community was never of much importance to the designers and developers of these early iterations.
Today, all this has changed again. Thanks to visionary city planning and real estate developers like Luizzi Companies, community living is returning to its roots in the most stylish and modern ways imaginable.
Established by Carol and Peter Luizzi Sr. in the 1950s as a paving and driveway repair specialist in Watervliet, New York, Luizzi Companies has come a long way since then. Today, as a group, this dynamic team of real estate developers maintains several disciplines at once—and successfully so. Building its first apartment community in 2013, the company still leads with innovation and efficiency at a level that would be difficult to match in its niche.
A place to stay
Luizzi Companies is young, vibrant, and unafraid to be different. The result is a loyal following of fans of its work, enamored with its disruptive positivity, astute business culture, and explosive creativity. By cultivating the kind of communities that people don’t want to leave because of the comfort of their amenities and overall living arrangements, Luizzi Companies has built a name for excellence across more than one division.
As a self-sufficient company providing construction management and general contracting to private and civil clients alongside its real estate development portfolio, the Luizzi Companies team remains as trailblazing in its approach to property development as ever, and construction remains at the core of the group’s business holdings.
At Luizzi Companies, business is not all work and no play, either. Leading a team of creative folks, the firm encourages a sense of enjoyment in its office culture, which becomes a substrate for great ideas to flourish. “Our office setting is an extremely fun place. We’re happy to come to work. We enjoy seeing each other,” says Christian Luizzi, Construction Developer. “This atmosphere of having a great time at work gives us a competitive edge.”
Olivia Metchick, Marketing Manager, confirms this. “We all feel like family. It has that family atmosphere. It’s a very comfortable environment.” In response to this open-door culture, the team here relishes the freedom to collaborate with ease, bringing about solutions and ideas that genuinely set the company apart in everything it does. In turn, that means that it has more than enough exciting projects on the horizon to keep everyone engaged and inspired. With current projects well underway and future projects being discussed, the team has its work cut out.
Innovative projects
Over the next two years, several impressive projects are coming through the pipeline, with timelines ranging from one to six years to completion. These include an existing project in the village of Green Island, New York––the construction of a 200,000-square-foot warehouse for the state of New York’s Office of General Services. This should be completed within the next 10 months.
Also in Green Island is a 135-unit residential development called Factory Town Apartments. This waterfront property closely resembles a previous project, Starbuck Island, and is set to break ground in January 2025, with construction projected to take around 12 to 18 months.
Starbuck Island is one of the company’s most historic developments yet. This condominium-style mixed-use development of over $64 million came to life where the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers meet near Troy, New York on the ruins of an earlier landfill site. “Starbuck gives people that feeling of being in their own space, but it’s maintenance-free––it’s luxury,” says Metchick.
Moreover, Luizzi Companies is currently awaiting approvals for an estimated six-year project on 146 Marketplace in Halfmoon, New York. This mixed-use development boasts wonderful specifications with a 25,000-square-foot grocery store, a coffee shop, an indoor and outdoor seasonal atrium, plus much more spread across the 85,000 square feet of commercial space available. These outlets will serve the inhabitants of 328 apartments that form part of the greater community.
A small speakeasy bar is also in the plans—one of those “secret” or hidden little joints inspired by 1920s prohibition. There will also be a bowling alley, golf simulators, movie theaters, and a whole lot more. “We try to set ourselves apart with the kinds of amenities you don’t often see in these residential communities,” Luizzi says.
The team’s creativity even extends to free food, with regular food truck visits and small dance parties with DJs every so often. “Olivia and the rest of our team do an awesome job with doing all types of concerts and in-house parties and different events for our tenants,” he says.
Moving closer to home, the company’s headquarters form part of a larger property development, Lincoln Industrial, comprising several phases. It recently completed its first two phases, 1A and 1B, which include a 120,000-square-foot building that houses the state of New York Department of Labor, and Cargill, a food and food-industry supply firm. There are also 60,000 square feet of residential units.
In addition, four 15,000-square-foot buildings form phase 1B. Its next phase, currently awaiting approval, will include more office space and fabrication, warehousing, and other types of industrial buildings over another 500,000 square feet.
While all the company’s projects are innovative and special in their own way, West Mountain in Queensbury, New York promises to be one of the most surprising yet. The planning of this unique ski village is already providing the team with a lot of inspiration as its concept revolves around skiing in and out of each townhouse. The development is planned to be set along a mountain slope, adding to the adventure of skiing into the village, where a hotel, shopping, and warm hospitality await. The project is still 12 to 24 months away, but we will be keeping an eye on that one.
By creating communities where people are so at home all they want to do is stay, Luizzi Companies is putting an indelible signature on the New York real estate development scene. While its team of wizards may make it all look simple, hard work and meticulous concern for detail hold it all together. As part of this detail, the experience starts long before residents move in.
By investing in the latest technology, the company ensures that prospective occupants enjoy the pleasure of viewing units via the comfort of sophisticated, feature-rich touchscreen technology that gives them access to every available apartment, providing a breathtaking amount of fine visual detail—right down to the views they will have over the surrounding landscape. “We just recently started to implement that. This technology hasn’t been seen in upstate New York or the Northeast yet,” Luizzi says.
Sense of community
Attention to detail is not the only superpower that makes the world of Luizzi go ’round, however. Known for its unfailing generosity, both the company’s team and its local communities benefit from its success and support. Donating to organizations like Toys for Tots and others, handing out gifts of turkeys and hams to staff at Thanksgiving, and generally making everyone feel part of the family endow the company with its characteristic sense of largesse.
As people’s general sense of community strengthens in the recent post-pandemic cultural shifts around how we live, work, and play, Luizzi Companies is in step with what communities truly want. By developing properties that provide comfort, safety, and above all, community, this visionary team continues to dazzle rural New York.
Building Happiness Back Into Communities - Construction In Focus