One man’s journey from the wrong side of the law to demolition respectability.
As a teenager and young man, Albert J. Steele Jr. was one of the most resourceful thieves to walk the streets of South Buffalo. He could break into a vehicle in minutes, crank up the engine and drive off into the night — without car keys, according to cops who knew him.
But Steele, a 57-year-old bear of a man with a weathered red face and thick white beard, says his life of crime is all in the past.
He now makes a very good living demolishing houses and hauling away the debris from Buffalo’s most downtrodden neighborhoods.
His biggest customer, the City of Buffalo, paid Steele’s company more than $10.8 million for demo work over the past seven years. Since 2006, his Hannah Demolition has done more demolitions for the city than any other company.
Why does Steele get so much of Buffalo’s business when there are 24 other companies licensed to do demolitions for the city?
“We’re able to outbid other companies, because I have all my own trucks and all my own equipment,” Steele said. “We work hard. We work fast, because my men do not have to sit around for hours at a time, waiting for [rented] trucks to take away the debris.”
“I work hard,” Steele added. “Pretty much every Monday to Friday, from 8 in the morning until 7 at night. I’m out there with my men, working with them.”
City officials speak highly of his work, and so do many of the people who work for other local demolition companies.
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