After fire, a new start
FORT LAUDERDALE — What Eric Pierce thought was one of his worst days ever — watching his underinsured, multimillion- dollar woodworking business burn to the ground — has already turned into one of the best turns of luck for Starting Over.
The Nov. 7 blaze on Northwest 28th Street in Boca Raton meant Pierce’s woodworking business, Craftline, needed cabinet-making equipment and a manufacturing warehouse pronto. Enter Starting Over Enterprises, a Fort Lauderdale nonprofit that houses homeless men while putting them to work making cabinets.
With their help, Pierce has been able to keep most of his 15 employees on the payroll and not fall off his production schedule by much. And he’s become the acting director of Starting Over.
“We burnt on Wednesday, we completed a project the following Friday,” said Pierce, who has been a Boca resident for 37 of his 46 years.
But the situation also brings a rueful grin to his face: “If there’s anything I hoped not to be good at, it’s starting over.”
Craftline started out of nowhere. Lacking any other gift ideas, his wife gave him a table saw for Christmas in 2003. He started with a birdhouse, and, by 2004, he had a full blown-business. Some of his work can be seen at the Town Center at Boca Raton stores Ulysse Nardin and Campo Marzio Design.
Boca resident John Van Blois, who runs a consulting business, commissioned Craftline to build a bar setup for him in his home after seeing the local business’ truck about town.
“He is really quite a genius,” Van Blois said, describing a series of glassholding shelves that hook into his wall. “It’s very artful and interesting.”
But as Pierce sifted through the rubble trying to salvage anything he could, the future seemed uncertain. Wanting instead to pay for private school for his three children, Pierce admits that he had carried little insurance. He estimates the fire could cost him about $1.3 million. More immediately, though, he had projects due.
One of his machinery dealers t ol d him about Starting Ove r. He wa s headed south even before he could get back in the burned-out building.
“When I pulled up and got out of the truck, I heard [Starting Over Manager] Tony Fitzgerald s ay, “I asked God for someone like you,’ ” Pierce recalled.
“I’ve got to be honest — I’m glad it happened to him,” Fitzgerald said of the fire. “He’s bringing so much more to the table.”
The cabinets that Starting Over sells to wholesalers and nonprofits goes to support the 28 men who live in apartments in the community, Fitzgerald says. It’s always been a struggle to keep things going, he said. So having Craftline in the house has been an incredible boost already, he adds.
Manny Bel l e r i c e, 42, worked there in 2008, when the economy tanked. He said he was willing to work for a roof over his head so his skills didn’t get rusty.
“It’s a great program to keep people busy,” said Bellerice, now living in Port St. Lucie and working at starting his own wood-working business that specializes in closets.
Pierce said he’s already spotted ways to increase the plant’s efficiency, but he also found himself moved by the mission.
The details of how a forpro f i t company can be melded with a nonprofit haven’t yet been worked out, but both men say they think it’s a meant-to-be kind of thing. Pierce said it ’s showing him a new light.
“I never thought I would be involved in a charity— but what I’ve been exposed to — I see how it makes a difference,” Pierce said. “The reward is even greater than making something that takes people’s breath away. It’s helping people breathe.”
He said this building is probably where his business will stay.