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Company History
John Cannistraro Sr. founded J.C. Cannistraro Inc. as a one-man plumbing shop in 1963 just outside Boston.
“When ‘Mr. C’ started the business, he worked out of his own Waltham apartment, was the firm’s only employee and relied on his loving wife Rita to volunteer as his secretary,” says a company press release issued in 2013 when the company celebrated its 50th anniversary. “Through hard work, skilled labor and dogged determination, John Sr. grew his firm into an award-winning mechanical contractor and one of the largest privately owned companies in Greater Boston.”
The company’s first big break came at Boston Logan Airport, which remains a client to this day. Football fans can see the company’s handiwork on display every time the New England Patriots play at home in Gillette Stadium.
More recently, Boston has been undergoing a major building boom. Cannistraro crews, for example, helped build Millennium Tower, a 60-story residential skyscraper. When it was completed in 2016, it was the third tallest building in Boston. It’s now the fourth as several major developments continue to dramatically alter the city’s skyline. So, chances are, any construction site in Bean Town might be a Cannistraro jobsite
Cannistraro Sr. eventually expanded his company to provide HVAC, fire protection and facilities maintenance services for large mechanical plants at hospitals, universities, laboratories and many other facilities.
The company says it owes its success to a core set of principles imparted by Mr. C as his “triangle of success” which included three sides:
The company is in its second generation of family ownership, including brothers John C. Cannistraro Jr. as president; David G. Cannistraro as chief executive officer; and Joseph C. Cannistraro as chief financial officer.
Cannistraro has been touted as “Boston’s Largest Mechanical Contractor” according to the Boston Business Journal, been named one of the “Top Places to Work” by the Boston Globe, “Top 50 Mechanical Contractors in the U.S.” by ENR Magazine, and it’s even an inductee in the Massachusetts Building Congress Hall of Fame.