Blair Candy Co. of Altoona received the 2018 Alexander A. Notopoulos Award on Friday at the annual meeting of the Altoona Blair County Development Corp.

The award is given annually to an outstanding Blair County business. Altoona Enterprises, now ABCD Corp., created the award as a tribute to Notopoulos for the Altoona attorney’s years of service to the group and the area.

Blair Candy began in 1939 when Pat Dandrea purchased a small candy and tobacco wholesale business from Alec Khalouf and Abe George at 914 Green Ave.

The company has grown over the years and in 1999, opened Nic’s Tobacco Outlet and since then has added 11 more retail stores throughout Blair County and western Pennsylvania. With the advent of the internet, Blair Candy saw an opportunity to greatly expand its customer base.

In 2000, Blaircandy.com was created, featuring hundreds of the candy products the company had to offer.

On June 1, 2012, Blair Candy moved into the former Imler’s Poultry location on Beale Avenue with 48,000 square feet and eight docks all on one level.

The purchase and renovation were facilitated through ABCD Corp. utilizing low-interest loans.

In April 2018, Blair Candy purchased W.R. Straw Distributors Inc., which expanded Blair Candy’s product offerings to include coffee and coffee services as well as to increase the sales of the company’s similar product offerings.

Blair Candy/Nic’s Tobacco Outlets workforce has grown to over 120 employees.

The Dandrea family and its employees are extremely honored to receive the award, said President Pat Dandrea, grandson of the founder.

“We have had a great relationship with the ABCD Corp. over the years as they have been a major part of our success,” Dandrea said.

“With our fourth generation now becoming very involved in the day-to-day operations of our company, we hope to continue to be a very important part of the local community and surrounding area. We thank the ABCD Corp. and are very appreciative of this great award,” Dandrea said. “Our success would not have been possible without our employees. Our employees are truly exceptional They understand hard work and customer service are very important. Because of our history we feel very prepared for our future,” he said.

ABCD Corp. presented the Economic Development Partnership Award to the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development and in special recognition of the public-private partnership on the Bon Secours/Grande Palazzo redevelopment as well as the transformation on the Puritan Silk Mills project.

ABCD also established a special recognition award for projects that in and of themselves, dramatically transform and influence positive change beyond the immediate footprint.

The First Frontier Urban Transformation Award recognizes projects, and the people behind them, who provided the significant vision and investment towards a transformative adaptive reuse project — projects that change our skyline and inspire others to get in the game, said President/CEO Stephen McKnight.

The award was presented to Silk Mills Properties Inc. and Graystone Grande Palazzo LLC.

“Just before the wrecking ball was about to swing full speed toward the former Bon Secours hospital building, Jeff Long said ‘wait a minute, I have a better idea.’ A few short years later and with absolutely no complications or delays, the Graystone Grand Palazzo has taken shape,” McKnight said. “Likewise, for many years, John Radionoff has had the vision to do what we see happening now at the former Puritan Silk Mill building. Ideally it needed to be part of a larger redevelopment context. The Graystone Grand Palazzo provided that opportunity, and The Mill Building was launched. As we watch its construction, we already can see it promises to be a phenomenal new addition to that key city neighborhood.”

McKnight said while both of these projects are stunning in their visual and economic impact, neither would have been possible without some form of public private-partnership providing a complex combination of loan and grant dollars to assist in the environmental mitigation and site development work.

“Brian Eckert, Scott Dunkelberger and their team at the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development worked tirelessly and with great flexibility to ensure the state’s programs matched the need and timeline required by the private sector partners. Simply put, without those programs and Brian’s guidance, this project would not be possible,” McKnight said. “Together, these two projects represent just over $30 million in new capital investment. They will support more than 300 new jobs and add more than 150 new class A market rate housing units in the First Frontier Blair County.’

Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 946-7467.