Paving company plans to open new headquarters in Gurnee

The Gurnee village board has approved plans allowing a family-owned paving company to move operations out of a home's basement and into an office building constructed on a newly annexed site along Delaney Road.

The village board voted Monday to annex the 2.28-acre parcel at 35735 North Delany Road that Total Paving and Brick Services intends to operate from.

Owner Trinidad Espinoza has been operating the asphalt business out of the Beach Park home of his daughter, Maria Lozada, who serves as the company's president. She said that at peak times they can have seven people working in the basement.

"We're really looking forward to moving," Lozada said.

Now that the annexation is complete, the company is going forward with the village's approval process for a proposed 10,000-square-foot building.

Workshop and warehouse space will take up much of the building, with about 2,000 square feet dedicated for offices. According to village documents, some of the office space could be leased out to other companies.

Lozada said the move will allow the company to consolidate operations. The business currently rents multiple spaces to store their equipment and vehicles, an expense the new building would do away with.

Lozada said they are proud to have been serving the Chicago area for as long as they have.

"I just had a customer call and tell me he wanted us to work for him because we'd paved his driveway in 1994," Lozada said. "It's cool to be able to provide work for people and be able to stick around so long."

Lozada said she and her husband, George Lozada, came on board in 2007 and incorporated the business as Total Paving and Brick Services. Her father still works for the company and now oversees their five work crews as the superintendent.