Barbara L. Pearce, Chair and CEO of Pearce Real Estate, is pleased to announce that, with the help of Senior Commercial Broker, Carl Russell, and Senior Commercial Associate, Chris Nolan, the pizza capital of the country may just also become the empanada capital of the nation.
Just three months after U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) declared New Haven the “Pizza Capital of the United States,” Russell and Nolan were instrumental in the leasing of a large light industrial building, which has become the newest home of a burgeoning empanada business.
In the transaction last month Russell and Nolan represented New York-based 145 Hamilton, LLC., the landlord of 145 Hamilton Street, also known as 150 Wallace Street in New Haven. The 20,280-square-foot building was leased by Pikalo Foods, LLC. of Yonkers, New York. The new Hamilton Street tenant was represented by Mark Glassman of Arnold Peck’s Commercial World in Milford. Pikalo Foods entered into a multi-year lease of the Hamilton Street property.
Pikalo Foods is a family-operated business founded in 2021. In only three years the company has gone from one restaurant with a tiny kitchen to an empanada empire, providing products to delis, markets, and restaurants in the northeast. The need for a new location in Connecticut was precipitated by the company’s expansion of its wholesale empanada business. “An immigrant dream that started with nothing and turned into something deliciously unforgettable,” according to its website.
Carl Russell is a member of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) and he is a Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM). He is a nationally known instructor in the CCIM program. In addition, Russell served as an Assistant Adjunct Professor of Real Estate at New York University, and he is a past president of the Greater New Haven Association of REALTORS®.
Carl Russell can be reached at 203.783.9999 x102 or at crussell@hpearce.com.
Chris Nolan has served as President of the Commercial Investment Division (CID) of the Greater New Haven Association of REALTORS® (now the New Haven Middlesex Association of REALTORS®) and completed a three-year term as a State Director for the local Association. Nolan was also a founding committee member of The Downtown Real Estate Brokers’ Committee for a Better New Haven.
Chris Nolan can be reached at 203-281-9312 or cnolan@hpearce.com.
