Brian Angelilli, founder and President of GreenHeart Companies, LLC at a new retail plaza development in Boardman, Ohio.

GreenHeart Companies, LLC transformed the historic landmark, Erie Terminal Place, into a fully furnished, mixed-use apartment complex. It is located on West Commerce Street in downtown Youngstown, Ohio, at the foot of Youngstown State University.

Greenheart is the name of a tropical hardwood—one of the oldest, rarest and hardest woods found. So, when Brian Angelilli incorporated his second-generation construction company in 2009, he chose a name that represented solid strength—GreenHeart Companies, LLC (GreenHeart).

That name has, indeed, proved prophetic. GreenHeart has grown from a small homebuilding firm founded by Brian’s father, Pat, to a five-division construction company that is a major player in residential and commercial construction within the Cleveland, Ohio-Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Corridor–an area with a total population over six million people within a 150-mile radius of Youngstown, Ohio.

It’s a family affair, with Brian serving as President and CEO and brothers John as Corporate CFO and general manager of the Window Restoration Division and Michael as project coordinator of Sales and Estimating. Headquartered in Boardman, Ohio, just south of Youngstown, the company is situated geographically to take advantage of opportunities in the area. “We’re an hour away from both Cleveland and Pittsburgh,” John says, “and we just established a presence in Columbus.”

“My father founded the company in 1972 building residential homes,” John says. “When he retired in 1995, Brian took over the company and, for the first five years, continued our concentration in residential building.” Today, GreenHeart Homes is one of the region’s largest builders of residential properties, with more than 400 built to date. The company design assists, builds, markets and sells lifestyle custom homes, townhomes and condominium homes in both planned residential developments or on privately owned lots.

Seizing Opportunity

Brian’s foresight and ability to seize new market opportunities have led to dramatic growth into new areas over the past 20 years.

In 2000, the firm launched a commercial division. One of its first projects was to build a LEED-certified food manufacturing plant. In 2004, the firm hired its first professional estimator and started doing both public and private bid work. Today, GreenHeart Commercial is the largest of the company’s five divisions, offering general contracting, construction management and a dedicated carpentry team for commercial, retail, industrial, residential and hospitality projects.

Key to the commercial division’s success is its highly skilled professional staff. “Mike Marshal, senior estimator; Edward Kay, senior project manager; Kenneth Cummings, project manager; and Bill Brown, manager carpentry, along with support staff and interns, combine talent and experience into a cohesive world-class project management team. I couldn’t do it without them,” Brian explains.

During the Great Recession in 2008, Brian started a window restoration company. “Homebuilding stopped,” John explains. “We went from building 20 to 30 homes a year to zero. So, we went back to doing remodeling and additions.”

The work included the historic restoration of homes and buildings in the Cleveland, Youngstown, Pittsburgh Corridor. GreenHeart Window Restoration was born. As founder of eNergy® Window Restoration and pro-contractor for Pella® Windows and Doors, this division preserves and restores historic wood window systems for both residential homes and commercial buildings. Greenheart-restored windows provide the energy efficiency and comfort of modern windows, while keeping their historical look. The business complements the firm’s residential and commercial divisions, where historic renovation and adaptive reuse are growing markets.

Revitalizing Youngstown

GreenHeart is playing a key role in restoring historic downtown Youngstown by partnering with developers to rebuild the area. Located halfway between Pittsburgh and Cleveland, Youngstown still reflects the steel industry’s collapse in the 1970s. But this Rust Belt city is in the midst of a cultural and economic renaissance and GreenHeart has played a big role in that effort.

A perfect example is its work on the historic Stambaugh Building. Originally built in 1907, the 12-story, neo-classical revival building is now a 125-room DoubleTree by Hilton hotel. “The hotel features renovated rooms brought to life with natural light and a unique view of downtown. The views are spectacular,” Brian says.

Other projects include the Erie Terminal Place, a historic landmark that GreenHeart transformed into fully furnished, mixed-use apartments and the Wick Tower, built in 1906 and reintroduced in 2015 as an apartment building.

Not someone to overlook a business opportunity, Brian decided five years ago to purchase several single-story motels built in the 1950s and 1960s and renovate them into studio and efficiency apartments. “We bought and renovated three different properties and that required property management,” Brian notes. That led to the creation of the company’s fourth division, GreenHeart Property Management. Today, the firm manages more than 15 residential and commercial properties. Last year, the firm’s fifth business division was formed when the company decided to open a professional design center to complement its residential, commercial and historic preservation work. The new custom design center showroom, which opened in late August in Boardman, serves as a one-stop source for remodeling or new construction. The center is headed by General Manager Ed Metzel, who brings more than 30 years of design experience to the job, and interior designer Alexis Rossetti, with over 20 years of home building and design expertise.

Residential, commercial and historic construction customers can visit the center’s showroom to create an interior design that fits their needs. The showroom offers a wide selection of kitchen and bathroom accessories, flooring, carpet, countertops, tile and lighting.

“The design portion really pulls all our divisions together,” Brian says. “A lot of homebuilders focus only on homebuilding. Our strength is providing access to all these various resources.” GreenHeart employs from 30 to 50 people at any given time and has another 30 to 50 dedicated contractors that work primarily for the firm. “Our greatest strength is our resource pool,” Brian says. “Our different divisions collaborate together. We have a diverse and experienced talent pool of employees and affiliates, including subcontractors, architects and engineers. With our professional team, together with our Controller Aura Diebel and our shared services staff, there is very little we can’t figure out at the end of the day for our customers, whether they need a custom home or a commercial building, a plaza or medical facility or a restoration project, large or small.”

It’s not surprising that the family-run business has a strong family culture. “We know each other and our families. It’s not out of the ordinary for us to cook lunch for all employees at our office kitchen,” John says.

The company is active in the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber and is involved in the Youngstown State University Industrial Engineering program, supporting rotating internships. John also has served on the program’s advisory board for several years.

GreenHeart works with interns from local universities and has established an apprenticeship program to match young, energetic students and recent college graduates with project managers who have been in the trenches for decades. “We like the dynamic that matching people new to the industry with experienced people brings,” Brian says.

A Trusted Partner/An Enduring Promise

Wanting to be known as “Your Trusted Partner for Success,” the company recently developed GreenHeart Care®, a set of principles detailing how the firm will treat its customers, suppliers and partners. “It centers around what it really means to have satisfied customers,” John says. “It starts from the moment you contact our office to the time you get your keys. Whether you are building a multimillion-dollar project, a home or renovating your historic property, we are hands-on from the beginning to the end.” The firm plans to train its staff on these principles over the coming year and promote GreenHeart Care® as a business promise to customers.

“We have built solid relationships with our customers since our father first founded the firm as a residential construction company. In 2022, we’ll celebrate our 50th anniversary,” Brian says. With the firm’s strength in capitalizing on new opportunities and expanding into new areas, it’s anyone’s guess what the future holds.

“There isn’t much we can’t do in this business with my team behind me,” Brian says. “I’ve worked hard to maintain and expand the business my dad started and to establish personal relationships over the years with our clients that keep us No. 1.”