ARMAND CERRONE INC (Contractor)
Total $ Contracts: $1,365,000
DUNS: Couldn't find a DUNS
Address: 4625 WITMER ROAD NIAGARA FALLS, NY 14305
projects.propublica.org
CERRONE'S WORK ETHIC, GENEROSITY LEFT IMPRINT ON NIAGARA FALLS AREA
By David Staba
niagarafallsreporter.com
The hardest-working man in Niagara Falls died early Monday morning.
Mark Cerrone, who built a one-truck business into a contracting empire that bears his name and includes construction, demolition, maintenance, excavation and landscaping subsidiaries, died after a five-month battle against cancer. He was 50 years old.
"No one could outwork him," said Cerrone's longtime friend and attorney, Ned Perlman. "He would go day and night -- not just for the money, but to make sure the job was done right and to provide for his employees."
The oldest son of Josephine and the late Vincent Cerrone, he graduated from Bishop Duffy High School in 1975 and worked for his uncle, Armand Cerrone, as a heavy-equipment operator and foreman before starting Mark Cerrone Inc. in 1999.
He launched his company with little more than a used backhoe, a used dump truck and his business savvy, operating out of a 6- by 8-foot office in a small garage on Connecting Boulevard.
Within a few years, Mark Cerrone Inc. expanded from its humble beginnings into spacious offices on Maryland Avenue, with a sprawling yard filled with cranes, trucks and other equipment.
He never outgrew his roots, though. As his business grew, Cerrone -- who remained a member of Laborers Local 91 and the Union of Operating Engineers Local 463 -- was more likely to be on a job site operating a piece of machinery than behind his desk. He and his wife, Candice, still lived in the same house in which they raised their four daughters.
Cerrone's legacy carries on throughout Western New York in the form of projects his company carried out, like the renovated Third Street and the new school on Niagara Street, as well as through his legendary generosity. His businesses sponsored youth sports teams, donated to just about every charity that asked and made sure Mark Cerrone Inc. had an advertisement in programs for community dinners and awards ceremonies.
Cerrone was also honored at a number of such galas, earning honors such as the Town of Niagara Business and Professional Association's Businessperson of the Year award for 2004, the same year he was named the Town of Niagara Lions Club Citizen of the Year. In 2006, he received the Community Service Award from the Pine Avenue Business Association and HSBC Bank's Entrepreneurial Spirit Award.
Cerrone was at least as generous in his personal life. His stock answer when asked for a favor was, "That's easy. Now ask me a tough one."
When the Niagara Falls Reporter moved its offices from the former Niagara Office Building downtown to its present home at the Niagara Business Center on Buffalo Avenue, Cerrone dispatched a truck and two capable young men to take care of the heavy lifting.
He didn't exactly relax during his rare off-hours, either -- hunting, fishing, sponsoring stock-car teams at Ransomville Speedway and holding club-seat season tickets for the Buffalo Bills, which he shared with his employees, friends and family.
"He did things the right way," Perlman said.
In addition to his mother and his wife, Cerrone is survived by brothers Vincent, Anthony and David Cerrone, daughters Angela Marcolini, Gina Cerrone-Piwowarczyk, Christina Cerrone and Lauren Cerrone, and three grandchildren.
Along with another pillar of the business community who did things the right way, Frank Amendola, who died in November 2006, the Niagara Falls Reporter didn't have a better friend than Mark Cerrone.
Neither did Niagara Falls.
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