Carl Paladino: A Giant Footprint

By Tony Farina

Carl Paladino says he has survived many cycles, ups and downs, but still goes to work every day, although he has turned over the business operations of Ellicott Development and all the properties to his son William.

“Billy handles it all,” says Carl Paladino, who seems much more relaxed these days, even though you know he’s still paying attention to everything that he’s built over his long career. That’s just him.

Carl Paladino’s feisty, in-your-face political style that won him a Republican primary for governor back in 2010, pledging to “take a baseball bat to Albany” to knock out the state’s entrenched political class, is still going strong at 78. His tough brand of political economic populism to reinvent government electrified his Tea Party followers and carried him to victory over establishment Republican choice Rick Lazio in the primary, but he lost to Andrew Cuomo in the race for governor.

“No regrets,” he says today about the race for governor. My son Patrick wanted me to run. “It was a good experience but cost a lot of money.”

Paladino’s campaign commitment was to reduce waste and regulation, and take aim at a government that, in his view, was overloaded with employees because it was so political. In the end, he lost by a 63% to 33% to a well-funded Cuomo campaign marked by controversy, with Paladino taking personal shots at Cuomo that may have hurt him in the long run.

It was not the first time or the last time that Paladino has been controversial in his words and deeds, but no one can deny he speaks his mind, sometimes perhaps without exercising political caution. But Carl Paladino has come a long way being who he is, and while he lost to Cuomo for governor, the faithful in Western New York stayed with him and supported him at the polls.

The street fighter that many know and love—and some don’t— who was born in Buffalo to Sara and Belesario Paladino in August of 1946, has definitely made a footprint in the town where he was born and still goes to work every day at his Ellicott Square Building headquarters where he’s been running his many development businesses and other holdings since 1972 and home to the real estate development company he founded in 1973 that has been hugely successful, earning him millions.

Saying his finances were “complicated” when he ran for congress in 2022 against a Republican candidate Nick Langworthy he had financially supported in the past, he promised to be a voice for the people, he listed his stake in 72 properties, plus various investments in stocks and bonds, which he valued between $23 million and $86 million. Most of the properties are in and around Buffalo, according to Investigative Post, but he also listed commercial buildings elsewhere in the state, including Syracuse, Rochester, Palmyra, Geneva, Rotterdam, Olean, and Ellicottville. There are also Pennsylvania properties—in Pittsburgh, Mercer, and Midway. Port Alleghany, Waynesburg, and Ashland.

That’s just a sample of his wealth but there are losses of course, and most recently with the Rite Aid collapse and bankruptcy, Paladino’s holding suffered a big hit as they look to deal with that situation where at one time they built 150 Rite Aids all the way into western Pennsylvania, owning about 75 in partnerships, and still have 38 that they are trying to redevelop or sell.

“Anyone interested can contact me,” he said in the interview, obviously still dealing with what he branded earlier as the ups and downs of his business and life. But Carl Paladino is not one to cast blame, but carry on as the fighter his “humble” father raised. You won’t find him hiding in a corner or running from controversy whether as member of the Buffalo Board of Education where he was eventually removed, or from a political fight which he knows a thing or two about.

Paladino looked up to four-time Buffalo Mayor Jimmy Griffin as his role model and hero, saying the late mayor was a street fighter and close friend, “someone who I truly admired.”

Griffin, says Paladino, “was the greatest, tough spoken, lots of leadership, a street guy. No formal education, but committed to being part of the community and helping people.”

Carl Paladino has a formal education, including a law degree from Syracuse, and like he says about Griffin, is committed to trying to help people and he has done that many times over, mostly with little fanfare. A few political battle scars? No question, but hugely successful and that includes at being a landlord with former Erie County Dpemocratic Chairman Len Lenihan being very direct on Paladino’s landlord skills that at one point caused Lenihan a little friction with State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs back when Paladino announced for governor in 2010 on his home grounds, the Ellicott Square Building, when built in 1896 the largest office building in the world. It is still pretty big with 299,000 square feet of usable space.

Lenihan was party chairman for 10 years and the party offices were in the Ellicott Square Building that Paladino owned, making him the party’s landlord.

After rebel Carl’s announcement, according to Lenihan, a New York Times reporter found him in his Democratic party offices, and asked him what he was doing there.

“I told him Carl was a great landlord,” Lenihan recalls. “That triggered a story which resulted in a call from state headquarters asking what I was doing,” says Lenihan today. “I said Carl indeed was a great landlord and was very accommodating. We may be on different planets politically but Carl was a great landlord and hugely successful. I stand by what I said.”

Ellicott Development still has over 600 employees and Carl Paladino, the son of a humble father who raised a no-quit son, goes to the office every day and his son Billy tells him, “keep shuffling the papers on your desk, dad.”

“I do what he tells me,” says Carl, a wink and a look of super love on his face. He says the toughest thing that’s ever happened was the loss of his youngest son, Patrick, just 29, who died from injuries suffered in a car crash in March of 2009.

“We loved him so much and he was just starting his life,” Carl said at the time of his son’s death,” and today it is very clear from the pain on his face that the pain is still very much there.

Carl remains very close to his daughters, Danielle and Sarah, and son Billy. He also has five grandchildren.

Carl Paladino has been hugely successful, as Lenihan said, but nobody escapes pain and suffering, not even a tough street fighter like Carl Paladino.

While he still goes into the office every day, shuffling the papers on his desk, the fiesty political activist, developer, father, and businessman that is Carl Paladino has made a huge footprint on the Buffalo community and is loved by many people who have seen it all back to the 1970s when it all really began for Carl Pasquale Paladino, chairman of Ellicott Development, who is still doing it his way.

No regrets, still working and feeling the things we all feel, and still sticking his nose into things, sometimes causing controversy. That’s just who Mr. Paladino is. A no-holds barred figure who has made a mark that will last for many, many years on the community where he lives, works, and, yes, shuffles a few papers.

All the best, Carl Paladino.