Big Family, Big Projects
Three generations of Sabatino family are flying high at Eagle One Roofing Contractors
In 1993, the late Damian Sabatino struck out on his own with a handful of employees and started his roofing business, Eagle One Roofing Contractors Inc. (Eagle One), after working in the roofing industry for decades. Today, Damian’s sons, Vinny and Danny, lead the firm as co-owners with their own offspring on the job.
On any given day, they now have a staff of 200 working on about two dozen job sites. They have grown the company from a few million dollars in revenue to $30 million annually, says Teri Sabatino, who works in Eagle One administration and is Danny’s wife.
As a roofing, sheet metal and waterproofing contractor for commercial, industrial and residential projects, Eagle One provides both new construction and reroofing services across the tri-state area. If you ask the Sabatino brothers what a typical day on the job is like, they’ll tell you it’s a lot like standing in Grand Central Station at rush hour, but it is also like sitting down to dinner with your boisterous family.
Service as Vital as the Work Itself
Danny and Vinny carry on the roofing family tradition that began with Danny’s maternal grandfather, Joseph “Buddy” Basil at Basil Brothers. Danny’s father went to work there for his father-in-law and that’s how the family roofing dynasty began, Teri says. They now provide comprehensive services—from foundation waterproofing to every imaginable type of paver or landscaping.
The brothers follow the same motto of their father and grandfather: customer service is just as vital as the work itself. This is something they communicate to their staff as well.
Despite the dramatic growth the company has experienced, Eagle One still maintains a family-owned feel, Danny says. Both his wife and Vinny’s wife, Irene, work in the office. Danny and Teri’s son, Damian, and Vinny’s son, Anthony, assist in managing activities in the field. In-laws Jesse Bodo and Johnny Mileo both work for the firm, as does cousin Joseph Salavec and his wife, Sharon.
Vinny’s focus is estimating while Danny, who has decades of hands-on experience with every system the company installs, oversees the field operations. “Their close relationship, coupled with a deep understanding of the field and each other, is invaluable to their success,” Teri explains.
“Everyone at Eagle One has a hand in everything from bidding to scheduling to answering the phones,” she continues. “We all pitch in when necessary. While we service some of the most well-known landmarks in New York City, we’re small enough that Vinny and Danny are both involved in every project.”
Epic NYC Projects
According to Danny, the firm’s jobs range from working at Hudson Yards to completing historic preservation projects. “We do a lot of the high-rises in the city as well as landmark work. We have our own sheet metal shop, so we can do any copper restorations. We are working on the Moynihan Train Hall now,” he says.
Eagle One has numerous commercial projects underway. For example, it is working on part of Delta’s $3.9 billion new terminal at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, also known as the “Delta Sky Way at LGA,” and the new concourse around the existing Terminal C and D. Eagle One built the roofing on the LaGuardia chiller plant and works for various contractors on multiple projects as part of the total renovation.
Eagle One has been working on the Hudson Yards mixed-use development for more than five years and expects to complete more projects there, Danny says. Hudson Yards is the largest private real estate development in the history of the United States and the largest development in New York City since Rockefeller Center, according to world-renowned architecture firm, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM). The firm provided architectural design and structural engineering services for 35 Hudson Yards, which is one of Eagle One’s projects.
A 72-story, mixed-use tower, 35 Hudson Yards includes for-sale residences, private amenities a club and spa, an Equinox Hotel, and ground floor retail areas. The building will have a total of 1.1 million square feet of space.
On these high-rise projects, Danny says Eagle One provides temporary roofing over the floors. For instance, on a 70-story tower, the general contractors will have Eagle One add temporary roofing every 10 floors to make the space watertight—especially in elevator shafts. “We do everything from temporary to permanent roofing and mechanical waterproofing,” Danny adds.
“We’re installing flashing—a weatherproof material that helps to keep water from getting underneath areas where it should run off—within the building walls so the contractors can go ahead with the curtain wall. As they top out, then we start doing the roof. We do a lot of waterproofing inside the building, and we’re on the job from the start,” Danny says. “We’re also doing a lot of the mechanical rooms with waterproofing, so there is less time lost because they don’t have to wait for the rain to stop.”
Additionally, Eagle One worked on 30 Hudson Yards and 10 Hudson Yards, which are also part of the Hudson Yards project. At the southwest corner of 33rd Street and 10th Avenue, 30 Hudson Yards will rise to 73 stories and reach 1,268 feet tall at completion in 2019. It will be the second tallest office building in New York when completed in 2019. This Class-A office tower will feature the highest exterior observation deck in the city at 1,121 feet above street level and will be home to Time Warner Inc. At the northwest corner of 30th Street and 10th Avenue, 10 Hudson Yards is 52 stories and 895 feet tall. The groundbreaking for this tower took place in 2012 and has since been completed. Eagle One also has two bids in for other Hudson Yards projects, Danny says.
The company has done several projects for the new World Trade Center (WTC), which is a 16-acre mixed-use development that includes five office towers, an eight-acre memorial plaza, and more than 500,000 square feet of shopping and dining. Danny says Eagle One has been a part of the WTC project for six years and is just wrapping up work on Tower 3, which is an 80-floor, 1,079-foot-tall structure that encompasses 2.8 million square feet of space. The firm also did work on Phase 1 of Tower 2, which is more than 80 stories and 1,270 feet tall.
No Matter What it Takes
“Our reputation in the industry is very good,” Danny says. “We work for all the big general contractors from Lendlease to Turner and AECOM Tishman. We do a lot of repeat business for these big firms, too. We do quality work and our service is impeccable. Our cellphones are on 24 hours a day; if they call at 11 p.m. and need men, we’ll have a team there within an hour.”
While Vinny leads the estimating division and Danny oversees field operations to ensure enough manpower is assigned to projects that are underway, Joseph (Salavec) orchestrates the efforts of the men in the field. “We really have a great system,” Danny says. “We have more than 25 experienced foremen and there is one on every job supervising the men working in the field. We have truck drivers on staff to handle materials delivery. We do so much work every day that it made sense to employ our own drivers, so we have no issues getting our materials to the job sites.”
Danny says many of the firm’s foremen have been working with the Sabatino family for more than 20 years. These experienced foremen oversee the training of other employees who want to learn more and move up within the firm.
“Much of the work we’re winning now are high-rises like the World Trade Center and Hudson Yards. Communication and technology have upped our game on problem-solving,” Danny says. “We have to provide detailed documentation of the work, which we do with Evernote software on the iPad. The foreman is taking pictures and communicating with me live through the computer. We can discuss in detail what’s going on while he’s on-site when I’m in the office. If he runs into a problem, he can take a photo, send it to my phone and we can discuss it immediately.”
Danny learned the industry from his dad, who he says did things “old school with a handshake.” While business operations have evolved from that, he learned that no matter what it takes, he will get the job done and done correctly.
“Communication is key between us and our clients as well as with our employees,” he says. “We have created a good bond between our foremen and the workers. We have worked together so long, our foremen know what we want. We go over safety plans for every job and any special requirements or hazards for that site and create a plan to make sure all the guys are working safely. We really have a good system in place with them; we are where we are because of our men.”
Looking ahead, Danny says he’s hiring more employees as the projects grow. “We have to be careful because when you get larger, you can lose control and make more mistakes. So, we take the time to train a new crew. We are growing at a fast pace and winning new projects, but we just want to stay steady. We’ve come a long way since Vinny and I took over the company, and we know we are very fortunate.”
“From what I see,” he adds, “things are still going well and there is a lot of work out there to be won. I hope we can keep doing that work and one day the younger generation will step up to take over the company. We like to say that we’re large enough to serve, but small enough to care.”