Syracuse entrepreneur, fueled by self-redemption, reviving long-vacant South Side site

Syracuse, N.Y. — When Johnny Pertillar determined to place his development abilities into his personal enterprise about 15 years in the past, he got here up with the title Ra-Menes House Restore.

It was a nod to one thing he loved finding out — historic Egypt underneath Menes, the pharoah credited with forming that civilization’s first dynasty by uniting a number of kingdoms. It additionally mirrored his long-term aim of changing into an entrepreneur who might raise up his neighborhood and depart an enduring mark.

Pertillar, 49, grew the house restore firm, and in 2013, added a house inspection enterprise with the identical Ra-Menes title. In 2019, he began a Ra-Menes trucking firm, instructing himself to drive a guide transmission so he might attend trucking college and get his industrial license. Now he has a small fleet of dump vans that serve development websites and has plans to ultimately begin a truck driving instruction program.

For his subsequent enterprise, Pertillar is concentrated on a long-vacant industrial property on town’s South Aspect, only a few blocks from the place he lived most of his childhood on South State Avenue. A former auto restore and fuel station at 900 South Ave. is on observe to be the long run residence of Ra-Menes Meals and Fuel, a Sunoco-branded gasoline station and full-service comfort retailer.

The challenge fills a necessity within the neighborhood — there is no such thing as a fuel station in that a part of town — however it additionally serves as an inspiration for residents due to the particular person doing it, stated Rita Paniagua, financial growth coordinator with Jubilee Properties of Syracuse Inc.

“When you have got an individual from the neighborhood who succeeds on this manner, he’s a mannequin,” she stated.

Pertillar’s $2 million challenge is one which neighbors of the South Avenue hall have wished for a number of years and that metropolis officers recognized as a key aim in a authorities examine launched in 2018.

The challenge took a serious step ahead lately when the Larger Syracuse Land Financial institution board of administrators authorized promoting the location to Pertillar for $5,000. The land financial institution can even spend as much as $51,500 to have previous gasoline storage tanks eliminated so as to get rid of any potential environmental issues on the property.

Pertillar, now a North Aspect resident, is worked up in regards to the new enterprise.

“My factor is the neighborhood is asking for it,” he stated.

Pertillar is working with Sunoco and Syracuse-based Wealthy & Gardner Development on website plans, and he hopes to have the enterprise opened by the tip of 2024. The present storage constructing might be gutted and rebuilt into the shop. There might be two aisles of gasoline pumps, with eight fueling stations whole. He expects to make use of 4 individuals and have the enterprise open every day from about 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

As he’s diversified his enterprise portfolio, Pertillar has made positive to show himself into an professional in every area he’s coming into. “I wish to turn out to be a grasp of it,” he stated.

He’s fueled by the thought of redemption from his youthful days, which included dropping out of Corcoran Excessive Faculty and entering into some authorized bother. House restore work helped him transfer away from that life-style, and entrepreneurship helps him carve out a legacy.

“I want to depart my title stamped on one thing good and constructive for my hometown,” he stated.

Pertillar has a workforce of people that consider within the challenge and his potential to get it accomplished. Along with working with the land financial institution, he secured a $100,000 grant from town’s American Rescue Plan Act Distressed Properties Program. Sunoco is partnering with him and has pledged $140,000 towards development and $178,000 in gear. CenterState CEO has helped Pertillar form his marketing strategy and is aiding him with lining up financial institution financing.

“He’s an amazing enterprise proprietor and entrepreneur,” stated Katelyn Wright, the land financial institution’s government director, on the group’s Oct. 27 board assembly.

Wright stated some individuals take a look at neighborhood comfort shops as potential nuisances as a result of they will appeal to undesirable exercise, however Pertillar’s plans name for a well-lit website with sturdy safety measures that embrace cameras.

“He plans on working this as a clear, no-nonsense kind of operation,” she stated.

With a three-bay storage in-built 1962, 900 South Ave. was most lately the house of Y&H Auto Restore, however it has been vacant for about 20 years. Town obtained the property in a tax foreclosures in 2019 and transferred it in 2021 to the land financial institution, which listed it for $25,000.

A brand new fuel station/comfort retailer on the website was among the many suggestions of a South Avenue redevelopment examine funded by the Syracuse Industrial Growth Company in 2018. The examine referred to the property, which is on the intersection with Crescent Avenue, as a “catalyst website” for the hall.

“A fuel station in a neighborhood is a primary want,” stated Paniagua of Jubilee Properties, a nonprofit targeted on revitalization within the southwest part of town. “Individuals have to drive to get their jobs.”

Paniagua, who can be a Syracuse widespread councilor, has been working with Pertillar on his functions for private and non-private monetary help. She’s been impressed by his drive to see the challenge via.

“Johnny is an individual with a imaginative and prescient that turns into his mission” she stated.

Eric Ennis, Syracuse’s deputy commissioner of enterprise growth, stated town is raring to see what he known as a “long-time blighted” property get cleaned up and put again to a productive use for the neighborhood.

He additionally stated Pertillar, a Black enterprise proprietor with neighborhood roots and a profitable observe report, is a perfect developer.

“There’s a variety of components to this that we predict are actually going to be constructive and be uplifting and supportive of the neighborhood,” Ennis stated. “We actually consider in supporting him and offering that help.”

Metropolis reporter Jeremy Boyer might be reached at [email protected], (315) 657-5673, Twitter or Fb.