ACCOUNT-ABILITY

By Don Shilling

Cafaro executive marks 50 years with company

The 74-year-old chief accountant keeps up with the always- changing tax laws.

YOUNGSTOWN — When Vince Morgione took a job working for William M. Cafaro in 1958, he thought he was just earning some money to put himself through college.

Little did he know that he was getting in on the ground floor of one the most momentous trends of the 20th century — the creation of the shopping center industry.

And little did he suspect that he was starting what would be a career of 50 years — and counting.

In 1958, Cafaro was in the beginning stages of creating one of the nation’s largest family-owned real estate companies. But holdings then included only the McGuffey Plaza in Youngstown, a plaza in Sharon, Pa., and two in Alliance.

Morgione and three other college students were the company’s bookkeepers, with their work being overseen by an outside accountant. The office was in a small building on Covington Street on the North Side.

When the three other students graduated and moved on, Morgione was given the title of chief accountant. Decades later, he remains the chief accountant for the Cafaro Co., which now manages nearly 30 million square feet of commercial space in 12 states.

Somewhere along the line, he was given a fancier title — controller.

For his 50 years of service, Morgione was honored last week by the family members of the late William M. Cafaro at the company’s Christmas party. But there were no gold watches and certainly no talk of retirement by the humble, plain-talking 74-year-old.

“I still enjoy coming to work,” said Morgione, who earned an accounting degree in 1961 from Youngstown State University.

About 10 or 15 years ago, Morgione set a goal of making it to 50 years of service. Now that he’s there, he’s just taking it day-to-day.

He realizes how unusual it is for a company today to be around for more than five decades. Mergers, acquisitions and tough economic times have swallowed up most of the great industrial names of Youngstown’s past.

Not long ago, the area was home to two of the nation’s leading shopping mall developers — Cafaro and Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. DeBartolo’s real estate holdings were sold to Simon Property Group of Indianapolis after his death, and now the DeBartolo Corp. operates the San Francisco 49ers and is overseen by his daughter, Denise DeBartolo York.

Cafaro’s real estate holdings have remained under family control. Anthony Cafaro, son of the founder, is the company president, and his two sons, Anthony Jr. and William, handle the daily operations as vice presidents.

Morgione oversees an accounting department with 25 workers and the auditing, tax, billing and finance departments with nearly 50 more.

Morgione said his biggest challenge today is keeping up with the always-changing tax laws in Washington as well as the 12 states Cafaro operates in.

But he fondly recalls the days of flying around the country with William M. Cafaro as he expanded from being an owner of small-town plazas to one of the pioneers in shopping mall development. The two men worked on financing deals, real estate purchases, lease negotiations and all the headaches that come with construction.

Cafaro succeeded because he knew how to deal with people, Morgione said. His boss never forgot a name or a face and made sure his handshake was his bond.

“He said, ‘You make a friend first, and you make a deal later,’” Morgione said.

Key to the company’s success, Morgione said, was Cafaro’s early decision to place malls in midsize markets where there wouldn’t be much competition. His first mall was built in Lima, Ohio, in 1965 and then he moved on to Saginaw, Mich., and Dubuque, Iowa.

Morgione said early sites were selected in conjunction with major retail companies, which were looking to be anchor tenants in new developments.

Cafaro then set his sites on his own back yard and developed Eastwood Mall in Niles in 1969. Morgione said they wanted a mall close to home not only to help the community but also to show to leasing agents when they visited the company’s headquarters, which had been moved to Belmont Avenue.

“We wanted to make Eastwood someplace special because it was our showpiece,” Morgione said.

Back then, Cafaro had its own construction company and there was a lot of activities that had to be coordinated when a new site was selected.

“It was exciting,” Morgione said. “You would see a bare piece of land, and six months later you would see buildings. One year later and it was all under roof. Eighteen months later you had a grand opening. It was amazing.”

shilling@vindy.com