Mount Vernon antique to house Queens manufacturer

The borough of Queens”™ loss may soon be Mount Vernon”™s gain.
A-Val, a fabricator of architectural metals and manufacturing for high-end commercial interiors, will be moving its operations from College Point to 240 Washington Ave. in November, according to the company”™s President Val Blaskovic.
A-Val employs about 180 people, including machinists, drafters, project managers and management, and Blaskovic said 30 to 40 of his employees won”™t be coming with the company because of the move.
“It”™s a little too far for them,” he said.
However, this should benefit the work force in southern Westchester that is looking for manufacturing jobs.
“Usually, manufacturing jobs are leaving the Northeast,” said Mount Vernon-based architect Ted D”™Amore, whose firm is renovating the Washington Avenue spaces that A-Val will be occupying. “It means a lot of manufacturing and office support jobs for Mount Vernon.”
A-Val, which was formed in 1984, is expanding and the 32,000 square feet it has in its current headquarters is not sufficient. The space in Mount Vernon embraces two buildings and totals 65,000 square feet.
When Blaskovic first started looking at possible sites for expansion, he checked out buildings in other parts of Queens and Maspeth on Long Island.
“Those (buildings) were a lot more money,” he said.
The property in Mount Vernon was much cheaper, he said, and the company purchased them through the Mount Vernon Industrial Development Agency.
The location in Mount Vernon also met Blaskovic”™s other criterion for a new location: easy access to New York City.
“We wanted to stay in the metro area,” he said. “This site is convenient, and it”™s only a few blocks away from the Metro-North train station,” which provides easy access to Manhattan.
Blaskovic acknowledged the company is spending more than it expected to fix up its new facility, which is 200-plus years old.
But he is still confident the company will continue to enjoy success in its new location.
“We feel that this is a new area that”™s up-and-coming, so we”™ll see,” he said.
D”™Amore said the buildings should be completely renovated in about three months, including adding a new floor and a mezzanine area for conference rooms, executive offices, and an employee”™s cafeteria for one building.
The top floor of one building will also include a running track and an exercise space.
“It”™s under construction right now, we”™re doing an extensive renovation and restoration,” he said.
He said the space has a long tradition of industrial use throughout the years. Most recently there was a paper-recycling operation located there. And in the 1920s and ”™30s it housed a foundry.
Even though the property is old, D”™Amore said they are being renovated with modern, sustainable features in mind.
All of the buildings”™ windows are being replaced with insulated windows, he said, and old openings in the masonry facade that had been closed up are being reopened and fitted with new windows in order to increase sunlight in the manufacturing and office areas.