As a business owner, experiencing a fire or natural disaster can be devastating. Needing to close for repairs, or indefinitely, can wipe out income for owners and employees, and mean the loss of a service for customers.

But one CNY business says a team effort to avoid those things resulted in a successful rebuild, one that left Frank Calandra, owner of CRC Raceway & Hobbies in Rome, feeling better about their product than before a devastating fire caused by the batteries that keep his cars racing destroyed the property. 

“These lithium batteries are a tremendous amount of power, but they are very dangerous. They can ruin your life,” said Calandra.

Fortunately, he said the batteries are back to bringing joy rather than destruction. But it took a lot of work. The fire gutted the main building and halted everything. Inventory was destroyed and parts of the building still bear the scars in the form of some inventory covered in soot. There's still smoke damage in some areas.

Calandra said sifting through the rubble took months.

“It was a massive task, and it really takes your wind away,” he said. “We’re better off now than we were, so it’s all good.”

He said operating a hobby store that caters to unique interests created pressure from loyal customers to reopen and kept his team going.

“The customers, the vendors, the community was very much wanting us to reopen,” he said.

Calandra said that when any business suffers from a fire, customers also suffer. But for a hobby store like his, that is the only such facility in the area there was added pressure to get back up and running.

“This is their hobby,” he said. “This is their Thursday night bowling, if you will.”

He said with competition from other pastimes like bowling, the pressure was even higher to build back faster and better, which brings us to what he points to as the silver lining. From new repair stations to an indoor track for winter racing to an improved parts store, they were able to rebuild to the current needs of the business and create a facility that he says caters to the passion of his customers and the hobby they all share.

It even hosted the ROAR Electric Nationals in July.

“If there is a good thing, we were able to customize the facility for our use,” Calandra said. “We were fortunate to be able to do that, so we made this building a little bit more custom for what we do.”

He hopes an additional silver lining will be attracting new customers.

“We got a group for everybody, new racers, kids, experts,” he said. “We have a class for everybody.”

The company’s parts store also supplies pieces and parts for hobbyists and stores around the world, and he says that, too, is back up and running.