New Kensington family plans to build home for contracting business in Arnold

After nearly 40 years in business, a New Kensington family is ready to move its contracting business out of the basement of its founder’s home and into its first offices with a new facility in Arnold.

In addition to a headquarters for the business, Shawn Whalen, the second generation owner of Michael F. Whalen Contracting, wants it to be a place where he can introduce young people to the possibility of a future in the trades.

Whalen, 34, a 2004 graduate of Valley High School, grew up swinging a hammer on job sites with his father, who began his career as a carpenter in the 1970s and started the contracting business bearing his name in 1982.

“Growing up, teachers tell you you have to go to college to make any money and have a good quality of life. That never suited me. I was never good at sitting at a desk all day,” Shawn Whalen said. “You can learn a trade, and you can make great money. I have a pretty good life, and it’s because of this.”

The Whalens are proposing to build the hub for their business on vacant property owned by Arnold’s Redevelopment Authority on Fourth Avenue at the New Kensington border.

The property, about a half acre consisting of multiple lots, is in Arnold’s commercial-light industrial zoning district, where any use has to go before city council for a public hearing and approval, community development Director Rick Rayburg said. The hearing is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. March 9 at the public safety building, 601 Drey St.

Rayburg said the city tore down houses on the property in hopes of commercial development.

“The city would love to have this. We would definitely want to encourage construction in the city, absolutely,” Rayburg said. “Nobody wants to cut grass on vacant lots.”

Council could vote on the use when it meets at 7 p.m. the same night at 1702 Fifth Ave.

“I welcome them to the city,” Mayor Joe Bia II said.

A 50-50 partner with his father, who is retired from the trades, Shawn Whalen has been working full time in the family’s business since 2011.

As a general contractor, Shawn Whalen said most of their work is residential roofing, siding, windows and additions such as rooms and decks. They built an addition for Arnold’s No. 2 fire department last year.

The company has six employees. In addition to being run out of Michael Whalen’s New Kensington home, Shawn Whalen said they rent storage in the Parnassus area.

“We’ve hit a point of growth where we need to hire more people,” Shawn Whalen said. “We need to hire some administrative and office personnel, and we need a place to put them. We’d like to do that in our hometown and bring more jobs to the area.”

Shawn Whalen said they looked at properties in other towns, but moving out of the New Kensington-Arnold area didn’t sit well with them.

“We wanted to stay here. We waited and waited and found that place,” he said. “We’ve held off on pulling the trigger on other properties when the need was there and we could have because we wanted to stay local.”

Shawn Whalen said the building would include offices, a customer showroom and the training area. It would be about 5,000 square feet plus outlying storage. Some storage units would be available to the public to rent.

He said they would operate during daytime hours, and no manufacturing would be done there, in case neighbors are worried about noise.

Shawn Whalen said they will be the general contractor on their own building. If the project is approved by the city, he said, they have funding in place and would like to break ground by April. He expects construction to take three to four months.

“It was my dream to get to this point. It’s awesome to see it come to fruition,” he said. “It’s a little overwhelming. It’s nervous energy there. It’s necessary. We’ve hit the point where we can’t grow any more where we’re at. We need a facility to allow us to expand and do all the things we need to do.”