Allan Appel Photo
Painted epoxy on the rebar retards corrosion and is often used in water-related projects, like bridges, Corwin said.
Thank “fast-food rebar” for the expansion of a New Haven company on the harbor.
The company, A.H. Harris, celebrated the opening a new 35,000-square-foot warehouse with a ribbon-cutting on Wheeler Street in New Haven’s port district.
The century-old company, which was born in New Britain, now has 600 employees in 52 locations from Maine to North Carolina. Tthe New Haven location, established in 2010, is one of the most booming, said Corwin.
That’s thanks to rebar, short for a reinforcing bar of steel rods or mesh that is used most often to make forms to pour concrete.
If the contractor’s crew doesn’t have the forms, the crew stands idle. Construction costs — which are 78 percent labor and 22 percent materials — go up without the work getting done.
If this contractor puts his order in at the A.H. Harris Company, he gets his rebar, formed to fit, like a pizza with just the right toppings,within an hour, and his crew is back at work.
Corwin with Harp at Thursday’s ceremony.
Such “fast food rebar,” as company President and CEO Kimberly Corwin called it, is one of the new services being offered by the A.H. Harris Construction Supplies Company at its spanking new warehouse/
Th company made the move to the Elm City because it wanted to be near the construction bonanza of the Harbor Crossing/Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge project, one of the biggest enterprises ever undertaken by the state.
Corwin’s call was not wrong.
The company rented space in the former U.S. Steel Corporation building, which had been rehabbed by local industrial developer Ron Esposito and his partners, Al DeLeo and Sal Esposito.
When A.H. Harris moved in six years ago, there were two employees, Corwin explained on a tour for Mayor Toni Harp and other officials after the ceremonial ribbon-cutting.
Today, there are 22 employees in a built-from-the-ground-up warehouse that Esposito constructed for Corwin on part of the 19.5‑acre property he owns, kitty korner, from the original U.S. Steel building, which Esposito rents out to eight other tenants. His final project on the property is to repair 30 feet of bulkhead on the water and build a trestle, or industrial pier, to make the loading and offloading of barges more efficient, with work to begin this summer, if approvals arrive in time, he said.
The huge new structure, which Esposito tailor made for A.H. Harris’s inventory needs, is enabling Corwin and her growing crews to supply the basic construction materials to more and more customers, and A.H. Harris’s business is growing fast, she said.
Pupils expanded in the eyes of visitors as the tour entered the warehouse space and its immense floor-to-ceiling shelving containing pallets of materials. The main products Corwin showed the mayor include vapor barrier, insulation, rebar, and steel mesh, or, as Corwin put it, “anything but concrete.’
The new warehouse space that was inaugurated is the largest capacity location, that is pallet space, for inventory in the company’s entire system.
The move enabled the company to increase its inventory storage capacity from 830 pallet spaces, to use the warehouse lingo, to about 1,200, said Regional Vice President Gregg Lanquette. Having stuff on hand — as opposed to a contractor having to wait for it to be ordered — is like the instant rebar service, a money saver for customers.
The new facility at 102 Wheeler St. is only one of two locations in the state where that “fast food rebar” service is available.
Economic Development Czar Matthew Nemerson and landlord Ron Esposito, whose next project is a trestle into the harbor to load/offload barges.
Corwin emphasized that construction costs being approximately 80 percent labor. So it helps that she can save contractors on labor costs by fabricating rebar to order as you would, say, a pizza with certain toppings, so that work can resume,“without the contractor having to ship in the rebar from New Jersey.” The delay in continuing of the work can be minimized, with the result that she has helped her customer save money.
In Corwin’s remarks at the ribbon-cutting she emphasized that every dollar invested in construction yields $1.80 in other economic benefits. “Construction builds the economy,” she said.
Mayor Harp cited the importance of the port district in general. New Haven’s port ranks 49th in the nation for domestic tonnage moving in and out and 53rd in foreign trade tonnage.
She said the A.H. Harris move “signals the private sector confidence in the city.” She added the city is working actively on dredging the harbor to “accommodate even more activity.”
Corwin said her company’s business is 10 percent residential, 40 percent infrastructure [ that is state, federal, municipal projects], and 50 percent commercial.”
The rail line, which crosses on the bridge, used to extend into that property several decades ago. If the company is shipping significant volume of product, it might make sense to invest in extending the current rail line to the property again.