Photo by Eric Ayres National Equipment Company's Jade Waligura, president, and Mike Swann, vice president, from left, stand outside of the new location in Elm Grove of the 81-year-old Wheeling-based business.

WHEELING – For more than eight decades, National Equipment Company has been serving the Wheeling area and beyond, and this week, the business is celebrating the official grand opening of its new location in Elm Grove.

The new location was built from the ground up at 50 Elm Terrace, with plenty of parking for walk-in customers and regular business clients. The company specializes in restaurant and food service equipment and supplies.

“We’ve been here since March,” said Vice President Mike Swann, whose family has kept the growing business going since his grandfather started it in his basement in Warwood back in the 1940s.

National Equipment Company began in 1945 and was incorporated in 1947. The business has moved to different locations over the years. In 1950, it relocated to Main Street downtown in the area where the WesBanco headquarters sits today. A fire forced them to move across the street in the late ’50s to 1313 Main St. – a building they continued to own until the recent move to Elm Grove.

They acquired the building at 1-14th Street around 1983 – the familiar site that for the last four decades housed the National Equipment showroom at the corner of Water Street across from WesBanco Arena.

“We had a warehouse attached to our showroom,” Swann said, noting that the showroom building and the five-story warehouse on 14th Street were connected, while they kept the historic Main Street building, as well. “We still maintained the 1313 Main Street location for storage.”

The city purchased all three buildings and others in that block, as a development has been in the works to transform the area into a mixed use complex featuring a waterfront hotel with additional spaces for restaurants, lounges and more.

“When talks first started happening, both parties agreed that it was important for us to stay in the city of Wheeling,” said National Equipment Company President Jade Waligura. “It was formed in Wheeling, and we were not looking to relocate outside of city limits.”

Company officials said the downtown location served them well. But as the city’s downtown continues to evolve into a more pedestrian-driven area between entertainment and recreational venues like Heritage Port and WesBanco Arena, it made sense for both parties to open a new chapter in Wheeling.

“We’re officially in Elm Grove,” Waligura said. “We’ve grown a decent amount over the past decade. We were happy on the block, but we were kind of growing in a different way than that area was. We can easily receive freight now, because it’s a one-story building, whereas our warehouse was five stories. It’s a lot easier to be organized out here, and there’s better parking here in the plaza.”

Swann said there was a misconception that the company sold commercial-grade food service equipment to business clients only. However, the merchandise is available to all customers – from restaurant and bar owners to residents who want to improve their kitchen’s capabilities.

The new storefront in Elm Grove is welcoming for walk-in customers, and the showroom is set up to accommodate merchandise and demonstrations.

“Operationally, we were able to lay it out how we want – to kind of merchandise it and create different sections of the showroom,” Waligura said. “We’re having demonstrations, and local chefs can come and test out equipment. It’s a capital purchase for them. It’s a serious investment, so now they have the ability to come in and test drive it, so to speak, and make sure it’s a good purchase for their operation.”

National Equipment Company opened a second location in Morgantown in 2023, and now the business serves customers from Eastern Ohio to Pennsylvania, Maryland and all parts of West Virginia.

The grand opening celebration of the new Elm Grove facility has been taking place throughout this week with specialty oven demonstrations, on-site manufacturer representatives, test kitchen demonstrations and more.

“We started today, officially,” Swann said. “We’ll have a ribbon cutting on Thursday, and we have a daily itinerary of events with specials and giveaways.”

The public is welcome and encouraged to stop by to check out the new location, and Waligura said their hope for the new facility is that everyone who stops by is happy with their shopping experience.

“I think this building is a signal that the business is strong,” Waligura said, noting that they have been dealing with some regular customers for generations of their family businesses, as well. “We intend to do this for another 81 years. It’s still business … kind of the way it’s always been done.”