Chester company markets, imports Jerusalem marble

The occasional chat between the owner of a convenience store and a customer turned into an idea -- to market a special kind of Jerusalem marble in the United States.

Eddie Wadi left his family in Palestine and moved to the U.S. in 1981. After living in New York City for several years, he followed the advice of a friend and relocated to Chester. He bought the Red Barn and Midget Mart convenience stores in Hopewell, both of which he still owns.

While shopping at The Red Barn, Greg Franz, who lives in Prince George County and has an extensive background in marketing and advertising, listened to Wadi as he talked about Jerusalem marble, a type of limestone found between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Wadi told Franz about a quarry in Birzeit, near his Palestinian hometown of Beit Hanina. When Wadi was a boy, his father worked in the Birzeit quarry, which is known for its unique variety of Jerusalem marble that is noted for its unusual coloring.

The two decided to venture into business to sell and market Birzeit Jerusalem marble.

In December, they created Chester-based B.H. Marble & Stone -- the "B.H." stands for Wadi's hometown of Beit Hanina. They operate a showroom at 12648 Bermuda Triangle Road.

"We provide marble products for floors, vanities, patios and unique projects," Franz said.

"The stone itself is so versatile and the different finishes almost dictate where it's used," he said. "Some is best for pavers and other exterior uses and some has a polish that's good for indoor jobs," he said. "Not only is the marble distinctive in its beauty, strength and color, but it's practical, too."

B.H. is able to provide test information on the surface's superior slip and abrasion resistance.

Colors are available in neutral tones like gold, brown, beige, light beige, gray and "mapped," a randomly lined surface that looks similar to a topographical map.

A government contractor is currently interested in using the mapped marble for a project -- they like it for its similarity to camouflage used in the Middle East. Even portions of Saddam Hussein's palaces were made with Jerusalem marble.

"It's very unique stone. It does not change color . . . it only improves with exposure to water and oxygen," Wadi said.

Since Wadi and Franz began importing the marble, they've been contacting prospective buyers, including architectural firms that keep lists of suppliers for clients such as malls, hospitals and banks, all of which design high-traffic spaces that require a durable surface such as marble.

They've introduced it to contractors, interior designers and government representatives who they hope will list them as suppliers on the national, state and local levels.

While the company does stock thousands of square feet of the marble in its Chester warehouse adjacent to their showroom, Franz says, "Our job is getting the material to the job sites."

Their installers are experts at cutting and positioning the stone for professional results.

"Our goal," Franz said, "is to go find distributors all over the world and have them add it to their inventory."

The stone is shipped in containers from the Israeli port of Ashdod. Each container holds 6,000 square feet of tile at a total weight of 40,000 pounds.

If B.H. is not shipping the stone directly to customers worldwide, the stone goes to the Port of Norfolk and then is stored in the company's Chester warehouse until needed.

Customer service is important to Franz and Wadi.

When Alicia Thaxton of Europa Stone Distributors in Sterling placed an order for a customer's kitchen backsplash, the boxes arrived containing broken tiles. Rather than reship the marble, Franz drove to Sterling and hand-delivered a new order of tiles to Thaxton.

"My customer was thrilled," she said.

She has quickly become a fan of the Jerusalem marble's colors and textures.

"Until you actually look at it, you can't fully appreciate it. Pictures don't do it justice."

After experiencing a decade of significant growth, as with many building materials, sales of marble and other stone used for construction have dropped since last fall, according to the Marble Institute of America.

Franz and Wadi acknowledge that the economic times are making their entrepreneurial venture more of a challenge.

Sales since December have been "spotty," Franz said.

But they are encouraged by the positive reception they have received when they network or market the marble products to interior design groups and contractors. They expect that as they educate customers about the stone and as construction activity picks up, demand for the marble will increase.

"We are bringing the best of the best from the Holy Land to America," said Wadi with pride for his homeland and its Jerusalem marble.