Cafaro Co. to become Niles-based come next week

By KALEA HALL

khall@vindy.com

NILES

The late William M. Cafaro started in the business world with a bar on the East Side of Youngstown.

Decades later, the company he founded is moving on up to a multi-million-dollar headquarters.

Beginning Tuesday, the Youngstown-based Cafaro Co. will be based in Niles.

The new headquarters just happens to sit amid the Eastwood Mall Complex, the Cafaro Co.’s flagship development.

“I think there’s always a degree of reluctance to change, but with this it is all positive change,” said Anthony Cafaro Sr., the former president of the company who is now retired.

“I am very much looking forward to finalizing the relocation. I think it will be more functional, be more comfortable and better represent to the community who we are.”

The 200 Cafaro Co. employees will move into the three-floor, 50,000-square-foot building more than 80 years after the company got its start with the Ritz Bar on Wilson Avenue.

In the 1930s, William M. Cafaro, Anthony’s father, and William’s brother John Cafaro started to run the bar.

“The fact of the matter is the money he made from the bar is what gave him the ability to invest in other business,” Anthony Sr. said of his father.

The first property William built was an 11,000-square-foot grocery store in Barberton.

In 1965, the company’s current Youngstown headquarters was opened on Belmont Avenue.

By 1965, Cafaro had its first enclosed mall called the American Mall open in Lima.

In 1969, the Eastwood Mall opened, with additions and upgrades in years following. Today’s Eastwood Mall Complex ranks as one of America’s largest shopping venues. It has more than 200 features, including department stores, specialty shops, restaurants, hotels and entertainment options. It also will soon have an event center to seat up to 1,000. The goal is to start booking events by early 2017 for the facility, which is still under construction.

Cafaro Co. is searching for an operator for the center.

Doors to the new headquarters and connected event center open with the new offices on the right and the event center in front.

High ceilings with vertical hanging lights and misty gray tones on the floor and walls hint at the modern design of the offices and event center.

Another entrance to the center and headquarters from the mall area will soon display pictures of the Cafaro Co.’s history.

Inside the headquarters are enough desks for 200 employees and then some, conference rooms, collaboration areas and walkways between departments. The headquarters offers more space, more technology and more light.

“The motivation first of all was in order to retain and attract the best talent in the area and outside of the community,” said Anthony Cafaro Jr., the co-president of the company, of the new headquarters. “Today’s workforce is looking at things much differently than when we opened our first building. They are looking for amenities.”

At this location, employees have easy access to a fitness center, banks and shops.

Cafaro Jr. describes the new headquarters as having a more modern, techno-centric setup with a much more open floor plan.

The design was made to make the work environment more pleasant with stand-up desk options and state-of-the-art phone and data systems to do live meetings.

“We have spent a lot of resources in making sure we have the best technology for our people,” Cafaro Jr. said.

The Cafaros first announced the relocation to Niles in October 2014. At that time, the move was scheduled to take place in 2015, but construction took longer than expected.

The two-floor, 44,000-square-foot old headquarters is for sale.

“It’s unfortunate we are leaving the city of Youngstown, but we are extremely pleased we are able to locate next to our flagship property in Trumbull County,” Cafaro Sr. said. He did not disclose the cost of the new headquarters.

Both father and son recall William M. Cafaro as a visionary who always thought to the future.

His picture and his desk are both staples inside Anthony Sr.’s third-floor office, along with pictures of his children and grandchildren, and a piece of Cafaro history: an original beer mug from the Ritz Bar that William sold in the 1950s.

“He would be proud,” Anthony Sr. said of his father. “My father was a visionary. He was able to accept the future and build toward that future.”