Marcella’s celebrates opening of new store
As printed in the Business Review
The new John D. Marcella & Son Appliances Inc. store is open for business, following an official ribbon-cutting this afternoon.
Marcella’s, the 87th largest appliance retailer in the country, moved from its tight space on Crane Street in the Mont Pleasant neighborhood into a new 17,000-square-foot building on Broadway.
Owner John Marcella invested $5 million in the building.
“They could have gone anyplace but they decided to build in their hometown,” said Susan Savage, chairwoman of the Schenectady County Legislature.
Marcella, who had the briefest comments during the ribbon-cutting ceremony, said simply: “I wanted to do something to make you proud.”
The project was described as the largest retail investment in downtown Schenectady in many years.
The deal was financed by M&T Bank, New York Business Development Corp. and the Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority.
The sales floor is about 13,000 square feet, nearly three times the size of the existing store. The Crane Street location in Schenectady will remain open for five years to sell scratch-and-dent items. The company warehouse is also there.
Marcella’s was the 87th largest appliance dealer in the U.S. in 2008, with $13 million in sales, according to Twice, a consumer electronics magazine.
The showroom was packed with people and a small band entertained the crowd gathered to celebrate Marcella’s investment in the area.
The politicians teased the crowd with more news to come. Next door a $3.4 million, 22,000-square-foot facility was going up, “another new investment,” said Savage. She called it a tech and laboratory facility “for an exciting new company to grow.” Officials said that announcement will be made in the future.
But today’s event was really to celebrate Marcella’s.
After decades in the appliance business, the sale of a single microwave oven paved the way for Marcella, 78, to get the financing he needed to make the move.
The microwave was bought by Mary Keegan, wife of Michael Keegan, regional president of M&T Bank.
She was so impressed by the service, from the sales advice to the installation, she told her husband, “You ought to be doing business with this company.”
Marcella didn't realize that that single transaction enabled him to make a big investment in the business his father started in Schenectady in 1947.
In one corner of the new store, General Electric has installed a large display kitchen with double ovens, side-by-side refrigerators, and vent hoods from all three of its appliance lines.
Marcella said it’s one of only five such GE kitchen appliance displays in the nation, and the only one east of Chicago.
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