Syracuse, N.Y. — When Johnny Pertillar decided to put his construction skills into his own business about 15 years ago, he came up with the name Ra-Menes Home Repair.
It was a nod to something he enjoyed studying — ancient Egypt under Menes, the pharoah credited with forming that civilization’s first dynasty by uniting multiple kingdoms. It also reflected his long-term goal of becoming an entrepreneur who could lift up his community and leave a lasting mark.
Pertillar, 49, grew the home repair company, and in 2013, added a home inspection business with the same Ra-Menes name. In 2019, he started a Ra-Menes trucking company, teaching himself to drive a manual transmission so he could attend trucking school and get his commercial license. Now he has a small fleet of dump trucks that serve construction sites and has plans to eventually start a truck driving instruction program.
For his next venture, Pertillar is focused on a long-vacant commercial property on the city’s South Side, just a few blocks from where he lived most of his childhood on South State Street. A former auto repair and gas station at 900 South Ave. is on track to be the future home of Ra-Menes Food and Gas, a Sunoco-branded gasoline station and full-service convenience store.
The project fills a need in the neighborhood — there is no gas station in that part of the city — but it also serves as an inspiration for residents because of the person doing it, said Rita Paniagua, economic development coordinator with Jubilee Homes of Syracuse Inc.
“When you have a person from the community who succeeds in this way, he’s a model,” she said.
Pertillar’s $2 million project is one that neighbors of the South Avenue corridor have wanted for several years and that city officials identified as a key goal in a government study released in 2018.
The project took a major step forward recently when the Greater Syracuse Land Bank board of directors approved selling the site to Pertillar for $5,000. The land bank will also spend up to $51,500 to have old fuel storage tanks removed in order to eliminate any potential environmental concerns at the property.
Pertillar, now a North Side resident, is excited about the new business.
“My thing is the community is asking for it,” he said.
Pertillar is working with Sunoco and Syracuse-based Rich & Gardner Construction on site plans, and he hopes to have the business opened by the end of 2024. The existing garage building will be gutted and rebuilt into the store. There will be two aisles of gasoline pumps, with eight fueling stations total. He expects to employ four people and have the business open daily from about 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
As he’s diversified his business portfolio, Pertillar has made sure to turn himself into an expert in each field he’s entering. “I want to become a master of it,” he said.
He’s fueled by the idea of redemption from his younger days, which included dropping out of Corcoran High School and getting into some legal trouble. Home repair work helped him move away from that lifestyle, and entrepreneurship is helping him carve out a legacy.
“I would like to leave my name stamped on something good and positive for my hometown,” he said.
Pertillar has a team of people who believe in the project and his ability to get it done. In addition to working with the land bank, he secured a $100,000 grant from the city’s American Rescue Plan Act Distressed Properties Program. Sunoco is partnering with him and has pledged $140,000 toward construction and $178,000 in equipment. CenterState CEO has helped Pertillar shape his business plan and is assisting him with lining up bank financing.
“He’s a great business owner and entrepreneur,” said Katelynn Wright, the land bank’s executive director, at the organization’s Oct. 27 board meeting.
Wright said some people look at neighborhood convenience stores as potential nuisances because they can attract undesirable activity, but Pertillar’s plans call for a well-lit site with strong security measures that include cameras.
“He plans on operating this as a clean, no-nonsense type of operation,” she said.
With a three-bay garage built in 1962, 900 South Ave. was most recently the home of Y&H Auto Repair, but it has been vacant for about 20 years. The city obtained the property in a tax foreclosure in 2019 and transferred it in 2021 to the land bank, which listed it for $25,000.
A new gas station/convenience store at the site was among the recommendations of a South Avenue redevelopment study funded by the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency in 2018. The study referred to the property, which is at the intersection with Crescent Avenue, as a “catalyst site” for the corridor.
“A gas station in a community is a basic need,” said Paniagua of Jubilee Homes, a nonprofit focused on revitalization in the southwest section of the city. “People need to drive to get their jobs.”
Paniagua, who is also a Syracuse common councilor, has been working with Pertillar on his applications for public and private financial assistance. She’s been impressed by his drive to see the project through.
“Johnny is a person with a vision that becomes his mission” he said.
Eric Ennis, Syracuse’s deputy commissioner of business development, said the city is eager to see what he called a “long-time blighted” property get cleaned up and put back to a productive use for the community.
He also said Pertillar, a Black business owner with neighborhood roots and a successful track record, is an ideal developer.
“There’s a lot of elements to this that we think are really going to be positive and be uplifting and supportive of the neighborhood,” Ennis said. “We really believe in supporting him and providing that assistance.”
City reporter Jeremy Boyer can be reached at [email protected], (315) 657-5673, Twitter or Facebook.
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