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Room And Board

Tribune photo by JASON BEHNKEN

Roberto Abreu, left, and his wife, Lazara Abreu, bought the company in 1989.

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By JOSE PATINO GIRONA

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 30, 2008

TAMPA - On certain nights, Roberto and Lazara Abreu sit on the balcony of their two-story home to unwind for a few minutes. The conversation always drifts to their business.

Their home and business are side by side, and the balcony where they sit from time to time overlooks their lumberyard and lumber mill, North Rome Lumber & Hardware, 5810 N. Rome Ave.

Roberto Abreu Jr. routinely jokes that people have waterfront property, but he is the one person with "lumberyard front property."

The Abreus have created a prosperous business with Roberto's ability to craft wood for historical homes in South Tampa, Seminole Heights, Tampa Heights, Ybor City and West Tampa.

Customers visit the business daily asking Roberto Abreu if he can match a siding, decorative wood columns, baseboards, crown moldings or door casings for an old home they own or are under contract to rehabilitate.

He creates a plastic molding and a blade to match the sample wood. Abreu keeps the blade and has more than 2,000 that he has made over the years stored in metal cabinets under general headings.

The couple also sell specialized lumber, such as mahogany, red cherry and cypress, that is hard to find, said Steve Link, a restoration specialist and customer for nearly 15 years.

"You can't just walk into a normal hardware store - Lowe's or Home Depot - and find those items," Link said. "They are specialty items."

"I go to Robert, and if he doesn't have it, he can make it," Link said.

Roberto and Lazara have come a long way since Roberto and his father bought the property in 1989. It was a lumberyard and lumber mill for decades that burned the same year the Abreus bought it.

After the fire, Roberto would work outside under the sun and heat. The Abreus eventually stuck four pipes into the ground and worked under a tarp. They later upgraded to a metal roof.

When it rained, they had to turn off the machines, cover them and seek refuge in the small hardware store on the lot.

The city wouldn't allow them to rebuild because the land was zoned residential.

The city rezoned the property in 1995, although some residents worried about noise and having the business in a neighborhood, said Gloria Moreda, the city's land development coordination manager.

The Abreus built a 4,000-square-foot warehouse where they store the machines and work. They have also built a 2,400-square-foot warehouse to store lumber.

Millie Ramierez remembers the bleak days, seeing the family work under the elements. Ramirez, a founder and former executive director of the Hispanic Business Initiative Fund of Tampa, helped write a business plan and prepared a loan package for the Abreus.

"They were entrepreneurs and visionaries," Ramirez said. "They believed the whole dream, and they implemented it.

"You can write a story around them, and that's the United States of America," Ramirez said.

As a youth, Roberto would visit a wood mill next to his father's butcher shop. He later took courses in woodwork at a school in Cuba and worked in the craft.

They moved to Tampa from Cuba during the 1980 Mariel boatlift.

Lazara worked assisting at a hair salon, sewing men's pants at a local factory and later at a day care. Roberto worked at a local woodworking and cabinet shop. He later bought a dump truck to transport dirt, rock and fertilizer full time. The job didn't satisfy him. After four years driving the dump truck, he bought the lumberyard and mill.

"My dad is a hardworking person," said Maggie Puentes, 37, the oldest of their three children. "He is very honest. He has always been a hell of a person. He is very respectful. He is very helpful to anyone.

"He didn't come to this country to sit back and work for someone," said Puentes, of Tampa. "He wanted a future for him, and he wanted a future for his kids. Him and my mom are a good team."

At the business, Roberto, 57, is on a forklift moving lumber, or he is busy pushing lumber through a machine. Lazara, 54, helps to cut lumber or heads the office taking care of customers. She walks the lot wearing her standard apron stuffed with the office cordless phone, notebook, calculator, pencil and measuring tape.

They work an estimated 12 hours a day.

"When a person owns their own business, he rests when he is asleep," Roberto said.

The downturn in the economy has slowed business, but they remain busy and employ two men.

The Abreus communicate with most of their customers in limited English. Customers said the language hasn't been a barrier. "We don't like to say no to anyone," Lazara said. "My husband likes to resolve everyone's problem. It doesn't matter if the job is small or the job is big."

ON TBO.COM

Keyword: Lumberyard, for an audio slide show of the Abreus at North Rome Lumber & Hardware. Reporter Jose Patino Girona can be reached at (813) 259-7659 or jpatino@tampatrib.com. Keyword: Lumberyard, for an audio slide show of the Abreus at North Rome Lum

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