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26 Commerce Road and the life of the small manufacturer

The narrative tells a lot about life for the small U.S. manufacturer

This 36,000-square-foot structure has a winding story that says a lot about the life of a small business in America.

Drive along the nation’s highways and you can see thousands of anonymous-looking buildings. But if you dig a little deeper, you find that these buildings have a story—and each can tell us a lot about life for the small manufacturer in the U.S. economy.

Consider one building in Pittston, Pa., just off the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s northeast extension, between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, at 26 Commerce Road. The building has a story of multiple strands, one of evolving technology, of business closures, of crime, of unexpected disasters, and of unexpected opportunities.

For years a company called Penox Technologies occupied 26 Commerce Road. Penox fabricated stainless steel liquid oxygen systems for the home healthcare business. Oxygen units like ones from Penox allowed people to leave the hospital and recover in the comfort of home.

In 1987 a diversified manufacturer called Essex Industries purchased Penox, including the building it occupied at 26 Commerce. Through the years Penox operated pretty much independently, but tumultuous times were ahead. Portable oxygen concentrators, a newer technology, began taking more of the market. This, combined with changes in Medicare reimbursements, forced Essex to close the Penox facility in 2008.

“The one thing I was most proud of is that every one of our employees found a job if they wanted it,” said Mickey Waldman, president of Essex, a multigenerational family business in St Louis.

Winding down the operations, employees came across inventory of stainless steel left in the building. Instead of selling it, Essex moved it all to St. Louis. “Several of our maintenance and shipping individuals were really big into home brewing, and they had the idea of fabricating fermenters out of that material,” Waldman said. “So we turned that idea into a little business until we sold all the inventory.”

That little business was called Brewhemoth. Google it and you’ll find videos of home brewers unpacking their newly acquired stainless steel fermenters. That business halted once the stainless steel inventory ran out, but for a time the venture was a serendipitous opportunity that connected home brewers to that anonymous-looking building at 26 Commerce.

Another strand of the story involves GT Fabrication Inc., a shop run by a Pittston family who purchased a building 20 yards from the Susquehanna River in the early 1990s. Back then the last major flood had occurred in 1972, and meteorologists at the time called it a once-in-a-century event. Just to be safe, the Tighes added on a second building that was 4 feet higher, an elevation where no flood on record had reached—at least at the time.

But that was about to change. GT Fabrication’s plant flooded four times over the ensuing years. Before the latest flood, in September 2011, employees removed all the equipment they could, but not some of the largest machines.

“With millions of dollars of equipment left in the building … we could receive only $500,000 in contents and $500,000 on building FEMA insurance. We knew we were in trouble.”

So said Gino Tighe, GT Fabrication’s chief operating officer, in testimony given to the House Small Business Committee in Washington. The family applied for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan from the Small Business Administration but was unsuccessful because the SBA kept requesting documents, including sales records, that were destroyed by the flood.

“I felt like we were pawns in some kind of game,” Tighe said. “We were going through all of this trouble and aggravation for a 6 percent loan.”

Eventually a loan provided by the Luzerne County Flood Recovery Program gave the company the cash it needed to get back on its feet.

A year later the Tighes finally were in a position to start looking for new property. It was then they visited 26 Commerce, at the time still owned by Essex Industries. It was on high ground. It was next to the highway. To the Tighes, it was perfect.

Unfortunately, just after placing a bid, the facility was leased to a sign-making company from Georgia. The company had limited success in Pennsylvania and stayed only for a short time before closing shop and moving back south. As Waldman put it, “They ran into the economics of our country, and they decided not to buy the building.”

So 26 Commerce came on the market again, and this time the Tighes were ready with an offer. Waldman flew up to Pennsylvania to meet Gino, his father (and company president) Gene Tighe, and the rest of the family.

“What a nice family they are,” Waldman said, who added that he tried to meet people directly rather than rely on a middleman (the realtor, in this case). “I like to meet people so that they know me. Meeting them, you either trust somebody, or you think they’re full of you-know-what.”

Before the deal closed, Waldman and the Tighes visited the now vacant structure, only to find that all the copper wiring was gone—thousands of pounds of it, in fact. This wasn’t done by some guy in a pickup truck. The police (who never caught the perpetrator) said it was probably a professional who came in with a fork truck, took the wire, and then drove to the Port of New Jersey to exchange the copper wire for cash.

Waldman recalled the moment. “I looked at Gene and I said, ‘Whatever it is, we’re going to take care of it. You find the contractor you want, and we’ll put it together exactly how you want it.’”

It turned out that the wiring GT Fabrication needed wasn’t quite as extensive as the original wiring, so the Tighes ended up saving Waldman a little money. After all this, the deal closed in late 2014, and GT Fabrication completed its move to higher ground in 2015. At this writing the company has 20 employees and has plans for significant growth over the next few years.

The narrative at 26 Commerce is a slice of the successes, serendipities, failures, and struggles that make the U.S. economy what it is. People like to talk about how technology has transformed business, and in many ways it certainly has. But what really keeps the economy going are connections between trusted people. That trust has allowed the story at 26 Commerce to continue on its winding path.

Image provided by GT Fabrication Inc., Grimes Industrial Park, 26 Commerce Road, Pittston, PA 18640, 570-883-0775, www.gtfabinc.com.

Essex Industries, 7700 Gravois Road, St. Louis, MO 63123, 314-832-4500, www.essexindustries.com

About the Author
The Fabricator

Tim Heston

Senior Editor

2135 Point Blvd

Elgin, IL 60123

815-381-1314

Tim Heston, The Fabricator's senior editor, has covered the metal fabrication industry since 1998, starting his career at the American Welding Society's Welding Journal. Since then he has covered the full range of metal fabrication processes, from stamping, bending, and cutting to grinding and polishing. He joined The Fabricator's staff in October 2007.