Immigrant entrepreneurs import and fabricate Italian tile
After seven years in Portland, Venice Genoa Tile is now open on Fourth Plain Boulevard in Vancouver.
And it’s more than just a name. The showroom and warehouse offers high-end, imported tile products, most of it from Italy.
"Italy is the world capitol for tile," said co-owner Mario Dodici, an immigrant from Venice who came to the United States in the 1990s. His partner, Fabio Ferruzzi, is from Genoa. When the two tile contractors met at a Christmas party in 1999, they cooked up the idea to open a warehouse in Portland offering imported tile products at factory-direct prices.
The company name was an obvious choice.
The Vancouver store, opened in November of last year, cost nearly $1 million between purchase and remodel, but they got a great deal on their tile work.
The pair chose Vancouver for the new showroom due to the lack of competition compared to Portland. Still, they claim they are the only company in the area offering factory-direct imported tile products. Customers here can select from ceramic and porcelain tile, as well as natural stone. The store also offers Cambria-engineered stone – an epoxy-quartz composite product that has the look of natural stone, but is much stronger and water repellant. Not only do they sell the tile, but the tools and instruction for the do-it-yourself set. Dodici said they opened the new store in part because home owners are showing more interest in tile as a flooring and decorative option.
"If tile is well-done, it will be for life," he said. "People are getting more and more familiar with tile."
While Dodici and Ferruzzi see many homeowners perusing the showroom for ideas and inspiration, the commercial market remains a large part of their business. The Vancouver location is a storefront for their 15,000-square-foot Portland warehouse and their new 5,000-square-foot fabrication house, where they make a lot of their tile products using imported stone and the Italian fabrication method. The unique product line pulls an average price of $7 to $10 per square foot, and attracts an equal amount of commercial and residential customers.
"We see a lot of residential customers, but we also get some contractors looking for ideas," Dodici said. "And the price point evens it out. We could have 10 home owners that want to tile a fireplace or do a kitchen backsplash, and then you could get one contractor that is doing an entire condominium complex."
Indeed, Dodici and Ferruzzi are busy these days with major commercial jobs; they are providing the tile for all five phases of the Tidewater condominiums in Vancouver, and for the 27-story Benson Towers in Portland. Venice Genoa Tile also provided materials for the Hilton Vancouver Hotel and Convention Center, Hickey Hospice house and the Vancouver VA Hospital.
The Vancouver store adds four new faces to the company’s 25-strong work force.
Venice Genoa Tile
Mario Dodici and Fabio Ferruzzi, owners
3001 E. Fourth Plain Blvd., Vancouver 360-253-9556
