A global reach 84 Lumber’s World Trade division building homes in many countries
Mark Reginelli, director of world trade for 84 Lumber, stands inside a model home with a variety of options for different countries through the World Trade program at the company’s headquarters in Eighty Four.
Exterior of a model home by 84 Lumber with a variety of options for different countries through the company’s World Trade program.
EIGHTY FOUR – While rebuilding itself, 84 Lumber Co. is continuing to build up the world.
Route 136 commuters got a recent glimpse of what the iconic company’s World Trade division is undertaking. Down from the roadway, near Building 6, sat a model home, a mockup of housing that will replace squalid conditions in which too many are living in Mongolia’s crowded capital city.
An estimated 1.3 million reside in Ulaan Baatar, nearly half the country’s population. About 700,000 are in the notorious “ger” districts, which rim the city.
“Those people are living in shanties and tents, with dirt roads. And this is the coldest capital city in the world,” said Mark Reginelli, director of the World Trade division and national sales manager .
“We spoke with the government, which wants to replace these houses.”
84 Lumber is doing just that. It is providing materials and supervising construction of wood frame homes for a landlocked nation in east-central Asia.
It also is providing jobs for locals, agreeing to use Mongolian labor for the project.
Though this is the World Trade division’s latest international construction project, it certainly isn’t the first. Reginelli developed and opened the division in 1998, and within the year, 84 Lumber built a luxury sudivision of $1 million homes in Shenzhen, China.
The lumber giant’s foreign interests are somewhat under the radar, but its endeavors are well above. They include projects in more than 20 countries, including Mexico, Australia, Chile, New Zealand and South Korea.
This one in Mongolia is a small part of the company’s rebound from tough times, sparked by the Great Recession and housing downturn, which fueled some store closures.
Founded by Joe Hardy in 1956, Eighty Four-based 84 Lumber is the nation’s largest privately held building materials supplier. It is now run by his daughter, Maggie Hardy Magerko.
Reginelli, who grew up in Monessen and now lives in South Franklin Township, has become a man of the world, literally, traveling an estimated 80,000 miles a year.
Talk about a frequent flier.
He heads a division of four, which also has Steve Douglas, Giovanni Morales and Adam Liu.
Developing a plan for any foreign country, takes time, Reginelli said.
“The international end (of 84’s operation) is unlike the U.S. end. It can take years of creating relationships with nations. So it also takes patience.”
The Mongolian homes, he said, are “the same footprint” as the one that was in the parking lot off 519. Each structure is one-story with 576 square feet of space, featuring two bedrooms, a bath, kitchen, living room and porch.
Reginelli said the homes can be built in a variety of tilings, siding and roofing materials.
“We provide the materials and training,” he said. “We don’t skimp on materials.”
Reginelli said he went there in June to oversee construction of three townhouses, each built by three local laborers supervised by a contractor. The slabs had been built ahead of time, and Reginelli promised completion in three days.
“Some of the workers had no experience in construction, but they finished the townhouses in that time,” he said, walking over to a Mongolian newspaper page pinned to an office wall. Reginelli pointed to an article, with photos, praising the amazingly swift process. He said journalists there initially scoffed at the three-day forecast.
He is proud of many of his division’s achievements, especially the one undertaken following Chile’s disastrous earthquake in Fabruary 2010. Reginelli said his company had to build quickly for the victims and did so, erecting 200 homes in 60 days.
There is no down time for the World Trade division. Reginelli said a group from Indonesia was in North Strabane Township two weeks ago, looking at the model home, and that 84 Lumber will embark on a project Ecuador near the end of the year.
Homes may seem to be where his heart is, but Reginelli is a multi-tasker. He is a 29-year employee who also developed and launched 84 Lumber’s National Sales department in 1996. He has been a significant player in the company’s growth, which now numbers 350 stores in 30 states.
Career-wise, he obviously found a home.
For more information on the company, visit 84lumber.com.