Multimillionaire rolls out red carpet for Pittsburgh
RICHARD BYRNE REILLY | Sunday, November 26, 2006 5:00 a.m. Pittsburgh Tribune Review - https://archive.triblive.com/news/multimillionaire-rolls-out-red-carpet-for-pittsburgh/
For a man who grew up of modest means in Hillsville, Lawrence County, Rick Hvizdak has extravagant plans for Pittsburgh.
Extravagant might be an understatement. Hvizdak, whose personal wealth is estimated at $700 million, has spent $40 million amassing an eclectic collection of antiques, paintings and 20,000 Oriental carpets in a bid to turn Pittsburgh into an antiques mecca for collectors, buyers, interior designers and architects between New York City and Chicago.
To do so, he's buying commercial property in the West End. He opened Artifacts in May, a 42,000-square-foot, two-story former warehouse on South Main Street that will act as his main showroom for American, French, British, Italian and Flemish antiques. The nearby St. James Church, a colossal former house of worship adorned by 30-foot stained-glass windows, will act as Hvizdak's fine art gallery when it opens later this year.
Hvizdak bought the church last year for $150,000 and has an army of workers renovating the structure.
"It's a massive undertaking," says Hvizdak, 49. "The top designers and architects in the world, I want to get them to Pittsburgh."
Hvizdak is preparing to roll out his vision with a national print, television, Internet and billboard advertising campaign. He chose the West End because he likes the architecture and affordability of the buildings. He looked at launching a similar endeavor in New York City but was dissuaded by the high cost of real estate there. He would need to spend $25 million to buy a building to house his vast collections in Manhattan, he says.
He has vowed to undersell the area's Oriental rug merchants with steep discounts on quality rugs. He can do so, he says, because he buys in bulk. Hvizdak has personally crossed the globe -- with stops in Turkey, Central Asia, Romania -- on a buying spree. He recently returned from Turkey, where he logged 1,600 miles in a rental car with his friend Mustafa Burgola, dropping $500,000 on rugs he then shipped to Artifacts. He estimates he's spent $30 million on expensive rugs in three years.
"I buy what I like," Hvizdak says.
Artifacts, Hvizdak says, offers something for buyers ranging from the discerning millionaire to the newlywed doctor decorating a starter home. Items include a $275,000 hand-carved mirror and $2,500 paintings by 19th-century Austrian landscape painter Fritz Chwala.
Hvizdak's friends and fellow collectors -- many with deep pockets -- marvel at his bold plans for the West End. But they aren't surprised. They say the endeavor is simply "Rick being Rick."
"It's a bold move, and a bold vision for Pittsburgh," says friend and fellow collector Chuck Pauli, 63, who met Hvizdak five years ago through mutual collector friends.
"Artifacts is a toy he likes. It's therapy for him. He's putting his money where his mouth is. Pittsburgh should be happy he's committed to this. He's adding a new dimension to the city," says Pauli, of Fox Chapel, who has been collecting 18th-century English furniture and 16th- and 19th-century Dutch paintings for 35 years.
The venture is not without financial risks. How do you convince collectors to bypass New York City, Chicago and Miami and come to Pittsburgh instead⢠When many who have never been to the city harbor images of a post-industrial cityscape with a blue-collar history, how do you convince them that the city is a go-to destination for high-end art and antiques?
"It's going to be hard. Most people aren't interested in buying this stuff," Pauli says. "(Pittsburgh) is still more McDonald's than Mortons."
Pauli says that getting the word out, and then getting people to visit the showroom and gallery, is crucial to making a go of it. He suggested that when and if a casino comes to Station Square, ferrying gamblers over to the West End by shuttle could be a solution. Restaurants and nightclubs in the West End could put it on the map much the way the South Side has become a popular destination for those seeking the night life.
"He's putting enough stuff at one location, and the idea is that it will become a magnet for people interested in this type of thing," Pauli says.
Sonny Bellman, a friend and fellow collector who lives in a compound modeled on an 18th-century German hunting lodge in Glenfield, called Hvizdak a "human calculator."
"The bottom line is that he has an ability to see value. He's a brilliant man, relentless in his pursuit of quality," says Bellman, who retired in 2001 after flying airplanes for US Airways for 37 years.
Bellman says Hvizdak came from modest means and had to work hard just to finish high school. Hvizdak is a man always searching for the next deal, another avenue to increase his holdings and make money.
"He's had a number of odd jobs, selling cars, pumping gas. He barely made it out of high school. I like to say they had to burn the school down just to get him out," Bellman says. "I find him fascinating."
Hvizdak grew up in Hillsville, Lawrence County, "a population of one -- and a goat," he says. He is one of five children whose father repaired antiques for a living. Money was tight. He held a series of odd jobs growing up -- gas station attendant, car and insurance salesman -- before apprenticing for an older brother who owned a successful real-estate transaction company based in Kennedy Township.
Today, Hvizdak owns 30 enterprises, including a public golf course, restaurants, a hotel in the United Kingdom and real estate in Southern Florida. The bulk of his wealth comes from National Real Estate Information Services, which he bought from his brother. The company serves as an online platform for property transactions and employs 1,500 people. It had revenues of $300 million last year, he says.
Hvizdak divides his time between a house in Cranberry and a 150-foot yacht moored in the Intercoastal Waterway near Boca Raton, Fla. He has four children and attributes much of his success to a can-do attitude and to motivational speakers such as Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy and Zig Ziglar. Their books and audiocassettes litter his office, sharing space alongside an abundance of artwork and family photos. He started collecting antiques in 1990.
His attention to detail prompted him to move Rasol Tursonzadah from New York City to Pittsburgh in 2000. A Tajik who grew up in Afghanistan, Tursonzadah oversees Hvizdak's vast collection of Oriental rugs, repairing, restoring and selling them to a client base he says is growing. Interior designers and collectors are increasingly making their way to the Artifacts showroom, he says.
Tursonzadah is impressed by his boss's work ethic.
"We have the best-quality rugs, the best dyes, the best designs. (Hvizdak) is a very hard worker," Tursonzadah says.
On a recent afternoon, as he drives his Lexus SUV to his office in Kennedy, Hvizdak fields a barrage of phone calls from the two cell phones he carries. At one point, a Realtor in West Palm Beach calls to say that, although the house he owned had sold, the previous owner still had two large boats moored on the water out back.
Hvizdak, showing a subtle impatience, tells the Realtor to take care of it.
"Tough times never last," Hvizdak says. "Tough people do."
Artifacts, 110 S. Main St., West End. Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mondays-Fridays; 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays or by appointment. Details: 412-921-6544 or www.artifactsweb.com
"Who is RCH?" one may ask... Well, those three letters are the initials of none other than Richard C. Hvizdak, a.k.a. "King Tut", or simply "Rick" - though there is nothing simple about this man who posesses a larger-than-life nickname and a charisma to match.
The true answer is much more complex than the aforementioned explanation, and if one would ask anyone who knows him, a lenghtily explanation would likely ensue.
It has been rumored that when one first lays eyes on just a small fraction of Rick's vast collection - the resulting awe and amazement leaves them with a feeling of severe perplexity, which is usually compounded after the ensuing conversation with him.
"Of all the nutty and wonderful people that [Golf Course Designers] Hurdzan/Fry has worked for, Rick Hvizdak might be the king of unforgettable characters. Rick is a self-made wealthy man who appreciates his situation. His offhand business deals are legendary. Once he gets an idea, he seems to conjure up a special magic that turns it into a gold mine.
Who else would envision building an 18-hole golf course into the side of a mountain in remote Ellwood City, Pennsylvania and build a replica of an English castle for the clubhouse? Rick did.
Or put a restaurant in that clubhouse with food so good that it would draw people from Youngstown and Cleveland and the wait for a table would be at least and hour and a half? Only Rick.
Who would go to Europe just to buy medieval decorations for the clubhouse? Buy a rock quarry just to get enough stone for retaining walls? Buy a house, just to tear it down to add a few more yards to a back tee? Rick did all that.
Who would have the gumption to charge more than double the prevailing public green fee, compared even to Pittsburgh 45 miles away? Or turn down an offer of over $20 million for the course, clubhouse and restaurant. That's Rick Hvizdak, and that's Olde Stonewall Golf Club.
Even if Rick wasn’t a financially sound risk-taker, he'd still rank as our most unforgettable character simply because he's a great guy to be with. We love to tell audacious stories about Rick, like the time a past president of the USGA was at Olde Stonewall and drove his golf cart too close to a tee. Rick went over and chewed him out with some pretty salty language. Rick is truly larger than life. Did I mention he made the maintenance building to look like a castle? Or that he bought a bunch of animal sculptures and placed them all over the course?
Olde Stonewall is simply spectacular. We deftly routed the golf course through some very golf unfriendly terrain, and took on the task of making the golf holes work. Some holes flow gently across an old strip mine, others climb aggressively up the mountainside, still others seem to free-fall from bluff tops to perfectly maintained landing areas and one, the 474-yard par-4 16th, plays over two unmaintained protected-animal corridors to a hillside green. The hole is a thrilling adventure from beginning to end. In fact, so is the whole course.
The atmosphere at Olde Stonewall is fun loving, the golf course is challenging, the views breathtaking, and each round should be memorable. Just don’t drive your golf cart too close to a green when Rick is there."
-Hurzdan/Fry Award Winning Golf Course Designers/Architects
Taken from https://www.hurdzangolf.com/olde-stonewall
RICK HVIZDAK A PITTSBURGH-AREA REAL ESTATE MAGNATE HAS BUILT THE COURSE OF HIS DREAMS
GARY VAN SICKLE | MARCH 15, 1999 - Sports Illustrated Magazine
A tip-off that you have been bitten by the golf bug: You decide to build a course and spend $11.5 million doing so, hauling in100,000 tons of personally selected rock, for character. Your clubhouse resembles a medieval castle--a castle with a cabinet that will showcase medieval swords--and even the maintenance buildings have battlements and turrets.
Yes, Rick Hvizdak (pronounced VIZ-dack) was badly bitten, and the thing of it is, he never saw the bug coming. He grew up on a farmin Hillsville, Pa., and was introduced to the game only five years ago. Now 41 and a multimillionaire--he's the head of a Pittsburgh-based real estate information company that he foundedin 1990--Hvizdak is about to cut the ribbon on his own course, which will be open to the public.
Olde Stonewall, a 6,934-yard, par-70 track in North Sewickley, about 40 minutes northwest of downtown Pittsburgh, should be a contender for best new course of 1999 when it opens this spring. Designed by Michael Hurzdan and Dana Fry, it begins on lightly wooded, rolling terrain, runs adjacent to the serene Connoquenessing Creek, then heads up into the hills. There are ravines, waterfalls, a cart path over a suspension bridge and breathtaking views. Skip the par-4 16th hole if you have vertigo. The tee shot there has to carry a ravine, then plummets 150 feet to the landing area. Players must cross another ravine to reach the green. The 14th and 15th holes are back-to-back par-3s of 197and 217 yards.
There are blocks of limestone, some as big as 28 tons, everywhere on the course. At first the stone was used to support cuts made on steep hillsides, but Hvizdak liked the look so much he kept the rock coming--after he had spent a few Sundays prospecting in nearby quarries. An immense stone wall, perched on a hillside overlooking the 18th fairway and visible for miles, is the course's signature feature. "There's Olde Stonewall in your face," Hvizdak says. "When you're walking up 18, I want it to look like those rocks are going to come down at you." Green fees for Olde Stonewall will be in the $85-$105 range.
Hvizdak, a 24 handicapper, got hooked on the game after his first dozen rounds, in 1993. Mike Forgas, now Hvizdak's managing director, took him to the Pete Dye Golf Club in Clarksburg, W.Va. Hvizdak and his wife, Michele, loved the place and promptly joined, but the club was more than 125 miles from their house. "I looked around Pittsburgh and didn't see the golf club I wanted to belong to," Hvizdak says. "Plus, I didn't like some of their rules and, I hate to say it, their snobbiness. Pete Dye is an experience, and I felt that with the right property, investment and will to make it happen, it could be recreated here."
The end result is Olde Stonewall, a little pricey given its remote location but probably a better bet to succeed than Hvizdak once was. Only a D student in high school ("I like to say I wasin the upper two thirds of my class," he says with a laugh), Hvizdak skipped college and eventually went to work for his brother's real estate company. After seven years, his brother fired him. "Remember the game show Family Feud?" Hvizdak says."That's what we were like."
Hvizdak looked at the $1 billion spent annually for real estate information--title searches, credit checks, loan applications, taxes, judgments and other legwork that banks are either loath or unable to do themselves--and saw an opportunity. He started National Real Estate Information Services, developed software that made collecting such data more efficient and scored big. His growing company merged with his brother's, and Hvizdak took control. The firm now has more than 250 employees, and Hvizdak has licensed his name and software to businesses around the country. "The key is to focus on your niche," Hvizdak says."Theirs is banking. Mine is searching."
One search is over. Hvizdak's next trick will be finding the time to play. He estimates he didn't get in more than 15 rounds last year. "I'd like to play more in '99," he says, "but with all of our projects, I don't know if that's in the cards." His last round of '98 was his best, an 87 at Olde Stonewall. "If I didn't work," he says, "I'd play golf every day."
--Gary Van Sickle
