By LEE J. KAHRS
BRANDON-from Brandon-Pittsford Reporter November 2, 2011 

Local company back where it belongs

Usually, moving back home has a negative connotation, but the 70 employees at Naylor & Breen builders were more than happy to go back to their roots last month. Nine months after fire
destroyed the company’s headquarters and cabinetry ship on Route 7 just south of the Brandon Motor Lodge, the company moved into a new building on the same footprint.

And despite the setback for the company, Naylor & Breen was named one of Vermont’s top growing businesses by Vermont Business Magazine. The 9th Annual 5x5x5 Growth Awards were announced in September, acknowledging five Vermont businesses that have experienced the greatest growth over the past five years in five different business categories. Categories honored this year were technology, construction, manufacturing, service and energy. Naylor and Breen received an award in the construction category for their 33 percent growth over the last five years. Add to that a new vice-president and operations manager Tanner Romano, and the company has a whole new lease on life. ”I don’t even know how we got in there,” Rob Naylor said of the growth award during an interview last week. ”But never question it when someone’s trying to give you something.” Immediately after the January 2 fire, Naylor and Breen employees moved the offices into the former Vermont Furniture building just down the road across from the Mac’s gas station and store. Business didn’t miss a beat with either move, Naylor said. ”Things went pretty smoothly with both moves,” he said. “We were never down (with phones and internet) at all between the two buildings.”

While the new office building design is almost identical to the one destroyed by the fire, the interior is a little different. The entryway and front desk area has a sleek, updated look, complete with a sweeping, natural wood reception desk. Two perpendicular hallways run down each side of the building with offices lining the right sides, and each office employee chose their own carpet and paint. In the center between the hallways is a planning area equipped with a large table for examining blueprints. Missing is the large woodworking and cabinetry shop that was attached to the rear of the offices. It was in the painting/finishing room of the shop where the January fire started, fire officials said. Now, the cabinetry work is down in a separate, existing building at the back of the property that was formerly used for fabrication and storage. ”That was the biggest hiccup,” Naylor said. Local builder Jack McKernon offered Naylor space to rent at his company’s space in Park Village, where work continued through the summer, and that work included building all of the furniture and shelving for the new Naylor and Breen office building. Another addition is that of Thomasina Magoon, who was hired in February as Naylor & Breen’s Sales and Marketing Manager. ”We’ve never had much of a focus on marketing, buttimes have changed.” Naylor said. “It’s part of our effort to improve the quality of our projects. We don’t necessarily need to do more to get business, but it doesn’t hurt.” And business is very good.

The company currently has at least I0 projects in various stages of planning, design and construction. Last spring, Naylor purchased the former Brandon Training School administration building at Park Village in partnership with the Housing Trust of Rutland County. With the necessary funding in place, work is set to begin in April to transform the building into 18 units of affordable, energy-efficient housing (see accompanying story.) Work was recently completed on the Hickory Street affordable housing project in Rutland comprised of seven buildings, including one that is all handicapped-accessible. The company also has a contract for a similar project in Bennington to begin construction this winter.

Naylor & Breen also has a standing contract with Lake Sunapee Bank in Vermont and will be tearing down and rebuilding the drive-thru bank in Woodstock that was damaged by the Aug. 28 flood. In White River Junction, there are plans for a housing rehabilitation project, and in Bristo~ a rehab of the Addison Northeast Supervisory Union offices. There is also a plan for a multi-housing facility upgrade in Manchester, another project with the Rutland Housing Authority and two new projects in Hinesburg, including a new JiffY Mart. Now that the company is home for good, Naylor said all their attention can be back on business. ”At least we’re in our home base,” he said. “There’s a good feeling of settlement It’s good to be home.”

On September 15, 2011, Vermont Business Magazine presented their 9th Annual 5x5x5 Growth Awards, acknowledging five Vermont businesses that have experienced the greatest growth over the past five years in five different business categories. Categories honored this year are Technology, Construction, Manufacturing, Service and Energy.

Naylor & Breen received an award in the construction category for their 33% growth over the last five years.Thomasina Magoon, Sales and Marketing Manager accepted the award for Naylor & Breen. Also in attendance was Amanda Locke, Naylor & Breen’s Accounts Payable Clerk.

Congratulations Naylor & Breen for many jobs well done!

…from the other side.

Some of these photos were taken on Sunday from the Rochester side of Route 73. Some of them were taken on the following days as towns people started to repair the roads and bridges. You can also the adventure unfold from the previous post of John Legault’s, Doug and John Gorton’s adventure back to Rochester. The last few are from their Thursday morning travels back over the Brandon side with significant repairs made in order for passage of all terrain vehicles or trucks.

Absolutely unreal!

…let’s just say, if anyone is more ready for an adventure, it’s Doug and his son, John.

After a successful research mission yesterday by Rob and Tanner (see photo of Rob with mountain bike) to check on Doug Gorton and his family in Rochester, a plan was devised to find a way to get Doug to the “other side of the mountain” daily until the roads are passable.

Early this morning Doug and John hiked up the back side of Route 73 (over the river and through some woods) to meet Tanner, who a brought 4-wheeler and a truck for Doug in order for them to travel back-and-forth. Below are some of the pictures from today’s drop off.

Upon arrival, John Legault, another Naylor & Breen employee, was waiting on his four-wheeler to ride back over the mountain with Doug and John in order to rescue a stranded family member on the Rochester side.

Also shown are pictures from the first Route 73 wash-out, just above the turn to Goshen. We found local heroes Mike Markowski and Tracy Wyman, working hard to put the road back together.

Naylor & Breen Employees and Sub-Contractors were the first guests welcomed by Chef Robert upon completion of the Center Street Bar in Downtown Brandon. Chef Robert hosted this “thank you” celebration, complete with gourmet pizzas and local brews, for the extraordinary efforts by the N&B team, which completed this project under an extremely aggressive schedule.

Thank you Chef Robert and Line- we wish you the best of luck!

-The Naylor & Breen Team

Café Provence Restaurant Renovations
Center Street Bar & Café Culinary Theatre
Brandon, Vermont

Architect: Nancy Leary Design

Chef Robert and Line Barral have taken their very successful Café Provence Restaurant to a new level – “Street Level”. The existing second story restaurant has been expanded to include two street level spaces – The Center Street Bar (previously a Chinese restaurant) and the Café Culinary Theater (previously a bridal shop). The project design was driven by the wall, floor and ceiling finishes, as Chef Robert and Line wanted a comfortable, yet high-end product. The deep merlot, coffered ceiling tiles add a touch of old; rich maize and deep green and yellow venetian plaster paint finishes highlight the walls; and rougher head pine details create the feeling that the spaces have always been there. The bar area is highlighted with a custom fabricated (by Naylor & Breen’s own Hawk Hill Cabinetry & Custom Woodwork) common cherry horseshoe bar top. Its sleek finish juxtaposed with the rustic pine wall below, custom iron brackets and foot rail are mutually complementary. The Culinary Theater’s main attraction is the handmade cabinets, shelves, and tops that surround a Tuscan fireplace. Hawk Hill also crafted these custom pieces.

Many local businesses contributed generously to the creative interior finishes. Two church pews, discovered at Branford House Antiques in Pittsford, were cut to craft a unique corner booth in the bar area. The ends of the pews (with ornate details and the row numbers still attached) were creatively used as wall art in the culinary theatre, (seen above to the right in the theater) and the bible holder racks from the back of the pews were utilized as a place to hang kitchen utensils (see above). All the Vermont-made light fixtures were generously donated by Hubbardton Forge, (www.hubbardtonforge.com) and the appliances were discounted to Café from Best
Appliance in Rutland. Vermont Kitchen Supply in Manchester, VT, donated all the kitchen supplies for the Culinary Theatre. They will open their first satellite retail space in the front part of the culinary theatre space. Visit www.vermontkitchensupply.com.

For more information about cooking class schedules or The Center Street Bar please visit www.cafeprovencevt.com.

The Forest Park West project is the first of two phases to demolish and rebuild this 75 unit affodable housing complex originally built in the 1970′s and is operated by the Rutland Housing Authority.

Naylor & Breen started construction on Forest Park West in September of 2010 and has been moving very fast. The project is lead onsite by Naylor & Breen’s Superintendent, Kevin Burke (that’s him in the colorful hardhat). These photos were taken on June 15th and show how quickly things are progressing. We’ll keep you posted and look forward to a completion date in early October.

The windows are in and the HVAC and electrical are almost complete. McCray Masonry is working to complete a dry laid stone wall and walkway for the new building. Work should begin soon on the clapboard siding. Rob chose a traditional yellow for the siding, along with the heavier trim for a classic New England look and feel. We’ll keep you updated as things progress.

Hello and happy summer to All!

Naylor and Breen welcomes you to our new Web site. Please click around to see our projects and learn more about our company. We look forwrd to any feedback you may have and hope you enjoy the new look and feel. Please email info@naylorbreen.com with any thoughts or ideas.

Hooray! Naylor & Breen has started rebuilding their offices after a fire destroyed the office and mill shop on January 2nd. Progress has been speedy by our hard working crew led by Superintendent Brent Wilbur. The trusses went up with the crane last Monday and by the end the week the building was covered, with exterior trim and ready for windows and IKO shingles to seal it up.

The color of the building has been quite a topic of conversation here in the offce. We know for sure that we are committed to dark wine colored doors and ivory metal clad Marvin Integrety windows and trim. If you have an idea for our colors, please post it! We are thinking something that will stand-out (not too much) and certainly nothing too boring and drab!

Here’s a photo taken today to show our progress!