It took the Egyptians about 20 years to build the Great Pyramid. The Romans built their famous Coliseum in about 10 years.

Joe Gricco has spent the past two years building a new office for Venice Auto Parts in Philadelphia and he is not upset that it is going to take another month or two before it is finished.

"There's no hurry here," Gricco explained. "I want it to be right."

Venice Auto Parts started out on a one-quarter acre lot when the Gricco family got into the auto salvage business in 1979. As the business grew, the facility physically expanded. First it bought the one-half acre lot from its neighbor, doubling in size. A few years later, it added four more acres … then five more acres. Today, the business sits on 14 acres.

Gricco revealed that the family knew next to nothing about the auto recycling business when it first opened Venice Auto Parts. It was simply a chance to buy a parts business at a good price and they decided to take a chance. They started out brokering parts from other recyclers to gain experience.

"In all that time, more than 28 years, all the work we did was done outside. The only thing indoors was the office," Gricco recalled. "Now that we've built a two-story, 44,000-square-foot warehouse and a 10,000-square-foot office building, everything will be housed inside."

Like so many others in this business, Venice Auto Parts is a family affair. The 25 employees include Gricco's father, his son and his sister. Despite the ongoing construction, it still processes approximately 20 late-model vehicles per week and maintains an inventory of more than 1,700 vehicles. The business serves regular customers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and through its web site, VeniceAutoParts.com.

"Business has been steady during the construction. Unless a customer comes to [the building], they really have no idea what's going on here," Gricco said.

The new facility is brand new in every respect, a new racking storage system, new computers and new office furniture. Gricco explained that he does not intend to move a single thing.

"We're building this place to take us to the next level," he added. "We really don't want to just stay competitive with the other suppliers around here. We want to take a step up to be better and we believe that building this new warehouse will get us there."

Gricco didn't anticipate the construction to take as long as it did, but the permit process and the environmental regulations took longer than expected.

"We started with the environmental stuff, because we knew it was the hardest. And, by far, that's what took the most time to do," Gricco explained.

Gricco expects to be operating out of the new facility well before the cold Pennsylvania winter begins. He also expects that 2008 will be its best year yet.

"We did the projections and we know, without a doubt, that the new place will really help our business grow," he said. "Our willingness to do whatever it takes makes us standout from the others and in the end that will make us more successful."