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As
Seen in NEW HOMES & CONDOS Magazine:
The National Story -- Special Feature on Rocky Pantalone
December 1, 2004
You can hear the sound of helicopters overhead; louder than
the roar of the crowd. It's November, a cold gray morning,
but even if the sun was there, no one would know
because this is New York City and the buildings block the view. Tens of
thousands line the streets and in the middle of it all, Rocky Pantalone
is somewhere he'd never expected to be just four weeks before and halfway
to the finish line in the New York Marathon.
His wife, Rene, is an experienced runner and a few years ago she was
scheduled to compete in the New York City Marathon with a friend. A
month before the starter's pistol was fired the friend backed out and
Rene persuaded Rocky to be her running partner. He'd never run a
marathon before but he was ready to give it his all. He started well.
"Then I was running through one of those great Italian neighbourhoods in
New York and the baking smells overwhelmed me. I had to stop and have a
croissant and a latte." He finished the whole 26 + miles in 5 1/2 hours
with just a month's training.
Rocky Pantalone is a man who finishes what he starts, and he has started
quite a few successful enterprises. His companies include National
Homes, Pantalone Realty and Venturon Developments, covering the gamut in
the real estate industry from home building to real estate sales to land
development. National, the most recognizable name to the public, builds
500 homes a year and is one of the largest homebuilders in the GTA.
Currently National has five active sites across the GTA including
Heritage Glen in Markham, Gates of Countryside in Brampton,
Lakeshore Woods in Oakville and Glen Abbey's Westmount in Oakville. A
new project, Admiral Woods, has just opened with semi-detached homes and
townhomes adjacent to conservation lands in downtown Ajax.
Pantalone's approach to homebuilding is the principle behind National's
slogan, "You are the blueprint". It's an approach that seems to have
struck a chord with buyers as Pantalone is most proud that at least a
third of his homebuyers come to him as referrals or as repeat buyers.
Mary Marrello, Marketing Manager at National Homes, said that "it's
really all about meeting (their) customers' needs". That is why the firm
seeks continuous input from its buyers and visitors to their sales
offices on what consumers are looking for in the whole procedure of
buying a new home. Marrello said National will be refining and expanding
its consumer surveys "because they are an excellent method for us to
stay in touch with consumers' attitudes, desires, concerns, questions
and view points."
"It's important to try and stay ahead of your purchasers and to keep
pace with consumer preferences", says Pantalone, who is truly a salesman
at heart. Selling was his first career choice after getting out of
school and beginning to raise a family. His first job was as a salaried
carpet salesman, but when he switched to commission rather than salary,
he earned more money than the company president, and that just wouldn't
do. His father-in-law and mentor, the well-known builder/developer Larry
Longo, who died two years ago, suggested Pantalone apply his selling
talents in the real estate field.
In 1974 he opened Pantalone Realty, specializing in land sales, plus
industrial, commercial and institutional real estate. In his first year
of business he sold one property and made $1,200 commission. "I was
ready to head back to the carpet business," said Pantalone.
In his second year developer Stan Leibel asked him to sell some
industrial lots to builders and users, with a commission of $5,000 a
lot. In two months he sold 195 lots and made nearly $1 million. "I
decided real estate might have a future after all," said Pantalone.
"If you can think it you can make it happen," says Pantalone, "as long
as you're willing to work hard enough." That's exactly what he did as he
built up the real estate sales end of his business, assembling blocks of
land to sell to builders and developers. "I used to bring land deals to
(developer) Fred DeGasperis and tell him that this was a really good
opportunity. He would say to me, "if it's such a good deal, why don't
you take a piece of it?" so that's how I started Venturon and got into
the land development business."
Then, during 1990, a deep recession had homebuilders who had bought lots
from Venturon coming back and asking for concessions and price
reductions. "I decided I might as well build on my lots rather than sell
them for less, so I got into the homebuilding business too."
Pantalone wanted a strong name for his homebuilding company and was
thinking about it in his den one night when the CBC TV news came on. "It
was The National. I thought "now there's a name that is big, impressive,
respected" and I wanted that for my company. I checked and it was
available, so I launched National Homes."
Since starting National Homes, Pantalone has helped create some of the
biggest new home communities in Ontario. Springdale in Brampton and
Columbus Trail in Maple are two of the largest.
"Today, I have the best staff in the country," said Pantalone. Plus,
those children he raised, Deena, Jason and Matthew, are successfully
following in their father's footsteps. And his wife Irene -- better known
as Rene -- is currently at Harvard studying real estate development and
management. His brother, a sister, cousins and some life-long friends
are also involved in the operation at National Homes, Pantalone Realty
and Venturon Developments -- the various companies Pantalone operates
from his Concord office complex. But maybe the biggest support Pantalone
has is Pino Trentadue, who worked his way up in the company, earned
Rocky's confidence and, with his strong background in architecture and
construction, is now Vice President of Housing for National Homes. He's
about the same age as his name - as we all are - but especially
Trentadue. His name means 32 in Italian. He's a minority partner in
National Homes, but does a majority of the work, admits Pantalone.
Jason, Pantalone's oldest son, graduated from the London School of
Economics and along with his siblings has added a new branch to the
Pantalone real estate tree. He, Deena and Matthew have launched Forum
Developments and are tackling a wide range of new residential and
industrial projects. Forum recently opened Kensington Place, a new
mid-rise luxury retirement residence at 866 Sheppard Ave. W., as well as
a number of in-fill neighbourhoods in the city. Deena will re-join her
brothers at Forum early next year. In September she and her husband gave
Rocky his first grandchild.
As a young man Rocky Pantalone was practically a scratch golfer, putting
his ball on most greens in two shots. And then came marriage and
children and launching his own real estate firm. For 25 years Pantalone
never even touched a golf ball. Today, he has a nine handicap and is
back exploring the world's finest golf courses. Pantalone recently
joined Wayne Gretzky for a Tournament in Los Angeles. Earlier this fall
he played four days on Georgia's exclusive Augusta National Golf Course,
home of The Masters. He is now able to squeeze in time to pursue his
favorite sport because, with the support of people like Trentadue and
his family, his companies are in good hands.
To understand Pantalone and the successful group of companies he has
created, you have to understand the importance of family. In fact,
Pantalone says he'll do anything for his family -- except run another
marathon. "Early in the race I could see the helicopters filming the
race leaders and even then they were so far away it looked like they
were flying over Canada. I'll never do it again."
More details are available at www.nationalhomes.com or at 905-669-9199. |
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