Nuncie's building
The Nuncie's building is a 23,000 square-foot complex of buildings on Block 202 at 2609–2625 2nd Avenue North first constructed in 1950 for Nuncie's Music, a retailer and servicer of musical instruments founded by Nunzio "Nuncie" LaBerte 5 years earlier. At some point the business expanded into the adjoining Acton-Hopkins Machine & Foundry.
When the Elton B. Stephens Expressway opened in 1970, the Nuncie's building adjoined the 2nd Avenue offramp, which was the highway's northern terminus until the interchange with I-59/20 opened in the 1980s.
In 1980 Nuncie's son Larry LaBerte acquired adjoining parcels to the west. In 1983 the business expanded with a new 7,426 square-foot showroom with a hipped batten-seamed metal roof topped by a large half-cylinder shaped lantern. The roof extends over the sidewalk, supported on oversized round posts. A new customer parking lot extends to 26th Street.
Nuncie's filed for bankruptcy in 2003 and closed down in 2004. LaBerte told a reporter that he showed the building to more than 200 prospective buyers before closing a deal valued at just over $1 million with Scott Bruce for his Bruce Office Supply Inc. business as well as a franchise of Office Furniture USA.
After Bruce closed his business in 2017, he leased the building to Network Medical, a software publisher doing business as Hospicelink. That company merged with StateServ of Mesa, Arizona in 2018 and moved its Birmingham distribution center to 269 Lyon Lane in 2021. Crane Works then leased the space for its headquarters offices, and agreed to purchase it for $2.15 million in May 2023.
References
- Cooper, Lauren B. (December 5, 2007) "Former Nuncie's building downtown sells for $1M" Birmingham Business Journal
- Parker, Illyshia (June 2, 2023) "Crane Works acquires its Birmingham corporate location" Birmingham Business Journal