NuRelm building in Uniontown up for sale
The property at 40 Iowa St., Uniontown, was to become a 鈥減retty box鈥� housing NuRelm e-Business Solutions, one of the area鈥檚 first high-tech companies.
Now, the 12,500-square-foot building is for sale.
NuRelm鈥檚 home for the past eight years, Sam Shaaban and Mona McGraw, NuRelm co-founders, said the company is moving to Pittsburgh, where most of its staff lives and its clients are located.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not something we want to do but feel it is necessary. I grew up in a small town in West Virginia, so I know what small-town life is like and I love Uniontown. But we can鈥檛 expect our people to drive back and forth, using up a couple of hours or more each time,鈥� he said.
The company tried different things to remain in Uniontown: asking staff to come in two days a week and work from home the other three while video conferencing.
鈥淲e also need to be able to visit our clients. It just isn鈥檛 practical for us to be here anymore,鈥� Shaaban said.
NuRelm bought the building, which was the former the Metzler Furniture Co. warehouse and a storage facility for James Vending, in 2005 for $140,000.
Calling the project a 鈥減retty box,鈥� the husband and wife team, Freddie Croce and Jennifer Lucchino, who run internARCHITECTURE, a Pittsburgh-based architectural design studio, helped NuRelm turn the 1930s-era downtown Uniontown building into a 鈥渉ip and really cool place to work,鈥� Shabaan said.
The three-story brick structure houses a garage on the ground level, NuRelm鈥檚 offices on the second floor and an ultra-modern 4,000 square foot apartment on the third floor.
Shabaan and McGraw, who brought NuRelm to Uniontown in 2001, wanted to contribute something to the downtown Uniontown revitalization work, one reason why they bought the building.
They had been leasing office space in the National City Bank building in downtown.
Plans that Croce and Lucchino came up with included such features as a conference room, custom designed cubicles, a coffee bar, game room, a work table made from an old shuffle board game, green linoleum covered benches constructed from doors and even a rock climbing wall inside an old elevator shaft.
Not all of these recommendations were accomplished in the project, which, Shaaban said, 鈥渉as been ongoing since we bought the building.鈥�
Shabaan, who did most of the construction work, said they upgraded wiring and other systems in the building to accommodate the business, which provides web content management, E-Learning, interactive website design, and custom web applications
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know anything about carpentry but I learned it,鈥� Shaaban said, with some help from friends and Croce and Lucchino.
Using cabinet grade plywood for sliding doors, walls and some of the furnishings, Shabaan created an apartment with a large, modern kitchen, dining area, three bedrooms, one of which is the master bedroom with bath, in an open space with high ceilings and concrete and yellow pine floors. Included are a second bath, laundry room and a mechanical room.
The office uses about 1,800-square-feet on the second floor and has a number of cubicles, all wired for computers, telephones and other high-tech connections. There is an addition 2,200 square feet that can easily be finished on the second floor.
There is a loading dock off the garage, an elevator shaft and parking along the side of the building.
The exterior needed little work, Shaaban said.
The U.S. Postal Service鈥檚 main Uniontown office is a little more than a city block away.
鈥淢aybe someone who has a light manufacturing facility who needs office space as well could use it as well as a place to live,鈥� he said.
Shabaan is planning an open house for the public and Realtors to view the building from 4 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
NuRelm was established in Austin, Texas, in 1999.
Business founders Shaaban and McGraw moved the company to Uniontown in 2001 as part of the 鈥淐ome Invent PA鈥� advertising campaign.
To learn more about NuRelm go online to www.NuRelm.com.
Ron Lovelace of Re/Max Professionals is handling the property. He can be reached at 724-425-5444.