Landmark Flooring: Honoring a Father Through Business

After 22 years of service in some interesting locations, settled in a quaint space at 9501 W. 171st Street Unit F in Tinley Park.

“I’ve worked out of my car, my house and now I have this store,” owner Nick Cinquepalmi said.

When the opportunity presented itself, Cinquepalmi wasn’t too thrilled to take on the challenge.

“The economy was bad and I didn’t want to commit to rent, lights, gas and things along those lines,” Cinquepalmi said. “I didn’t want any part of it.”

But he couldn’t get the space out of his mind. After driving past the storefront for months, he called the owner, whom he’d met while attending a block party, and agreed to give it a try.

“I looked at the store and it was a disaster. So when I did agree to take it, I told him if it doesn’t work, I’m leaving,” Cinquepalmi said.

Cinquepalmi recently celebrated his first anniversary at the location and is now looking to expand.

Humble Beginnings

Landmark Flooring started in 1989 as a cleaning business. The seed of the company was placed in Cinquepalmi’s head while working as a fireman in Burbank.

“One of the firemen had a carpet cleaning company,” Cinquepalmi said. “When I left Burbank and became an Orland Park fireman, it was a new market and I went back to the guy in Burbank.”

Cinquepalmi took his friend’s advice and started a carpet cleaning business of his own.

After years of networking and building clientele Cinquepalmi had another thought.

“The light bulb went off somewhere around 1993 and I said maybe I should start doing retail stuff,” he said.

Because he didn’t have a store, it was difficult to convince companies to give him their product.

“I started to fight my way into companies,” Cinquepalmi said. “It took a couple of years.”

It was worth the hard work. Because Cinquepalmi didn’t have a store, he set up warehouses for delivery places and eventually moved his business to the Internet.

Throughout the years, Cinquepalmi has maintained five key employees. But it took a while to find the right laborers and workers that shared his way of thought.

“I had to find people that will treat customers right ethically, give them a good price and be proud of their work,” he said.

Pretty soon his efforts would pay off.

“It was by word-of-mouth and basically police, fire, public works, everyone’s moms, dad, uncle’s … it was the community. That’s how I started to grow.”

Community Ties

Cinquepalmi is a man who wears several hats: business owner, firefighter, husband, father, son. 

Cinquepalmi owns and runs Landmark Flooring while working full time as an Orland Park battalion chief. “Time management and having the right people around me to help” is how things get done, he said. “In light of everything that’s going on (with the economy) we have survived. We’re proud to say that we are still standing. And the reason I would say that we are still standing is because it’s a family business and people know me.”

“I’ve been here for 20-plus years and what’s the choice? You can either go to a big box store or you can come and see a guy like me who’s got a family and who was born and raised here.”

Cinquepalmi is proud of his company and even more proud that it bears his father’s name. The elder Nicholas Cinquepalmi worked for Union Pacific before starting his own transportation company that he named Landmark Transportation. He was forced to close the company during the 1990’s because of the economy.

“That was a tough thing for our family to go through,” Cinquepalmi recalls. “So when my business started to grow, I named it Landmark Flooring. For my father – to keep his name alive.”