Lou, Linda and Charles Baldanza are the principals of Baldanza Construction Company. Lou began working with his father, himself a second-generation contractor, in 1970 after graduating business school. Linda joined the company in 1992, and Charles in 1994. The Baldanzas have been building in Northern New Jersey for the better part of a century.

Each Baldanza has his or her area of expertise. Charles develops the designs and oversees the building of the houses, Linda works with the buyers and on interior design, and Lou finds the properties and works with planning boards. Charles is also a licensed NJ building inspector.

Lou Baldanza has served as President of the Northern New Jersey Builders Association and was named 1998 Builder of the Year. Custom building is his specialty. Lou has worked with many of his
owner/operator subcontractors for more than 20 years, a continuity which encourages the quality and attention to detail necessary in custom homes. This personal interest the Baldanzas have is evident in the finished product and has made their homes sought after with many repeat buyers.

There is quite a history behind the "Baldanza" name. The crumpled, work-creased business card you see here belonged to Liborio Baldanza, the first Baldanza involved in home construction in Northern New jersey. As a young immigrant, Liborio found work as a carpentry contractor in Passaic. Unable to pursue his dream of being an artist, he instead became an artist with a hammer and saw. When Liborio constructed houses, he truly built them from the ground up. He would frame a house, make the stairs on the job site, lay down wood flooring, and design and craft elaborate trim work.

Charles Sr. first worked as a carpenter, following in his father Liborio's footsteps. During the 1930s, the father/son team, along with a partner, built houses in Fort Lee among other locations, along with keeping busy with general contracting work. After the upheaval of the Depression and World War II, along with his own father's retirement, Charles Sr. established himself as an independent contractor and decided to focus exclusively on new developments. In 1949, he began his first

development, Pompton Cottages in
Pompton Lakes. To the right is a photo of Charles Baldanza at the grand opening of Pompton Cottages in 1950. The houses sold for $8,900, and for G.I.s, a $42 a month payment covered mortgage, tax, and insurance. Charles went on to build approximately five hundred houses in Bergen and Passaic counties, along with several apartment and town home communities, until his retirement in 1986.

The article on your left is from the Bergen Record, dated June 8, 1973, and documents some of Lou Baldanza's first developments, among them the Baldanza family's first project in River Vale, New Jersey. Since then, he has built over 150 houses in that town alone.

Times have changed and house prices and monthly payments have gone up, but Baldanza Construction stays the same, we are still committed to building quality homes!