Revzilla adds larger building at Navy Yard

Revzilla, the anti-Amazon.com Web site for motorcycle gear (Zappos for bikers), is preparing to add a second, larger building at the former Navy Yard business center in South Philadelphia.

The company's showroom, office and warehouse operations now occupy a 51,000 sq. ft. building south of the east end of the Platt Bridge over the Schuylkill. Marketing chief Chris Pinto says Revzilla has arranged to start expanding into the nearby 104,000 sq ft warehouse occupied by Destination Maternity before Destination ran away to South Jersey last year. Revzilla also plans to boost employment to 160 this year, from the current 100.

The space will hold some of the 100,000+ motorcycle-related items Revzilla keeps in inventory, confirms marketing chief Chris Pinto. Pinto says the addition will make Revzilla one of the "Top 10 tenants" at the yard, where properties owned by PIDC (a city/chamber of commerce joint venture) and others managed by Lliberty Property Trust are home to Urban Outfitters Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, Iroko Pharmaceuticals, Flowers Foods' Tasty Baking Co., and other employers, alongside Navy engineering offices and drydocks that remained here after the shipyard closed in the 1990s.

Pinto and boss Anthony Bucci founded the company with fellow WebLinc veterans Matt Kull and Nick Auger, back in 2007, in a Center City garage near their crowded apartment, on the eve of the howling recession, which turned out to be as good a time as any to boostrap a company. Revzilla retails physical products, to committed fans (bikers), without needing a lot of venture capital. Local company-backers Steve Goodman Esq. of Morgan Lewis, Dave Bookstpan of Monetate and DreamIt Ventures, Dave Schlesinger of Five Below, and Dan Erlbaum of David's Bridal have been generous advisers, Bucci says.

"Philly's a sandbox for B2B2C companies," firms like Michael Rubin's Kynetic that back Internet sales operations, Bucci added. "Our philosophy is, move fast and break things. If it's negative, turn it off." He added, "We are scaling up." 

Source: Philly.com