On Feb. 12, Mayor Billy Barlow announced Pizza Villa, the oldest pizzeria in the county, will be receiving a $25,000 grant to help it move to its new location on 145 W. Bridge St.
Pizza Villa, established 53 years ago in 1966, will be moving into the vacant red-and-white Stone’s Candy Shop building on Oswego’s main strip. The grant will be used to initiate the start of Pizza Villa’s expansion project, which will include the purchasing of the new building and the remodeling of a new façade, along with plans to offer dining room seating, patio seating, a parking lot and equipment upgrades.
The grant that Pizza Villa is receiving is part of a discretionary fund and was afforded to it by the city, according to Victoria Usherwood Gailinas, the project manager for Pizza Villa’s expansion project.
“When we approached the community development agency to work with them on getting our loans and working on what they could do to help us, they brought up that there is an opportunity [where] you could qualify for a grant from the city under the discretionary fund,” Gailinas said. “They are all about jobs, the city is, so we had to prove how many jobs it is going to bring here, and we were able to do that.”
The funding for this grant will be coming from the commitment of program income through the NYS Community Development Block Grant Program, a federally funded program authorized by Title I of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, according to nyshcr.org. The program is managed and administered by the city’s Office of Economic Development.
Gailinas said the expansion will result in the creation of six new full-time jobs and another six part-time jobs for the surrounding area. More jobs are possible in the future if a wait staff is added further down the road to accommodate the new dining areas.
“At some point in the future, we will have table-side service once we get that up and running,” Gailinas said.
Barlow has been a big proponent for the expansion and renovating of Oswego businesses, a movement he largely began due to the $525,000 Downtown Revitalization Initiative, which was one of 12 projects granted by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2016.
“As we work to bring new businesses into the city, we must also assist existing business as well,” Barlow said. “Pizza Villa is an iconic Oswego establishment, surviving 53 years and still going strong. It is an honor to be able to assist such a thriving business that has become such a staple in this community.”
Oswego State students, like senior education major Arianna Wright, frequent Pizza Villa’s current location and look forward to the opportunities the expansion will provide.
“I love [Pizza Villa]. My class had to order from there when we were learning how to make rubrics for our students,” Wright said. “If you like gooey, cheesy pizza, then Pizza Villa is definitely the place to order from.”
Wright said the relocation will help bring a larger student patronship to Pizza Villa.
“Them relocating closer to campus is great,” Wright said. “I feel like it’s so underrated in its [current location] in a really small and easy-to-miss worn-down building.”
Susette Berlin is the owner of Pizza Villa and, according to Gailinas, has been working toward this project for four years. Gailinas said one of the main reasons Berlin chose to work toward this expansion’s because they are receiving so many orders that they do not have the oven space currently to keep up with them.
“Susette and Pizza Villa, they are exactly what cities hope will happen,” Gailinas said. “This kind of an expansion, that you will take a long-term business that has always been there and that you know have the opportunity to grow it out like you’ve never been able to do and everybody can get behind that kind of enhancement.”
Pizza Villa is set to reopen for business Aug. 1.
“Everyone is getting on board with what Pizza Villa is doing,” Gailinas said. “It is great for the city and not many businesses of her scale get to do this even … We are super, super excited about it.”
Maria Pericozzi | The Oswegonian
