BERLIN – A brand new building in Berlin now includes a new family-owned business called Ambiance Stone.

“It is wonderful to see this turn from a piece of Earth to this beautiful 10,000 square foot building,” said Chris Edge, Berlin economic development director. “And the good thing about Berlin is we’re really good at making things, fixing things and installing things and we want to get more companies that do it because that gives people careers, opportunities and more services to choose from.”

The town held a ribbon cutting ceremony Friday morning for Ambiance Stone, owned by Cleidiu Brandao.

Ambiance does a little bit of everything, from templating to cutting to polishing to edging and installing stone countertops, flooring, vanities and more. Their services includes: custom bathroom countertops, custom indoor and outdoor kitchen countertops, fireplaces, lobbies and workspaces.

“We’re working with several suppliers in the state as well as New England so once a customer finds the material that they want to use for their project we can pretty much customize it and help them design to implement it,” said Sarina Brandao, office manager and owner’s sister-in-law. “We have one (display) tower set up now but as we get going and we have more suppliers they’ll have really big pieces to be able to choose from. But if someone is really specific on what they want and they see a sample online then we can bring it in for them or they can go to one of our suppliers to view it.”

Ambiance has the finest stone cutting, edging and polishing machines and tools like the Bridge Saw, which has a blade made of diamond material.

“I make the templates at the house then I bring it here and depending how big the room is it’s about a day’s work,” Cleidiu said. “It could take two hours to cut the material and five hours to polish it.”

Currently it is just Cleidiu doing the hands-on work. But the team also includes Bernardo de Oliveira in sales and Nilesha Patel in bookkeeping and accounting.

“My family built the building because we were having trouble finding a place for Ambiance Stone,” Sarina Brandao said. “We were interested in somewhere on the turnpike, but with planning and zoning it wasn’t working out and then we came across this property that was available.”

Kev Kai Properties LLC purchased the property in June of 2021 and began the process with several professionals designing and building it.

“If it wasn’t for the Tax Abatement program I don’t think we could have afforded to do it,” Brandao said. “So that was a big incentive for us to be able to purchase this property and build from the ground up.”

According to the town and documents shared they recognized the importance of continued economic growth in the community and adopted a tax abatement program following this tax abatement framework.

“The more you spend the more you get,” Edge said. “Essentially gives you a Tax Abatement the first couple of years which for anytime you’re doing a new development that’s the hardest part.”

The entire building will include Ambiance Stone and Better Build Kitchen and Bath with 5,000 square feet of space each.

Ambiance’s goal is to make everything in the showroom out of stone.

“We want the showroom to feel like a home; we didn’t want to have just cabinets all over the place and we wanted it to blend,” Sarina Brandao said. “They’ll get a feel of what it will look like in their home and how different types of stones would flow in an open type of floor plan and our capabilities.”

Cleidiu Brandao is from Brazil. He lived in Massachusetts for 14 years then moved to Connecticut. He started his career journey in Boston and has worked all over the East Coast.

Ambiance Stone is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.-2 p.m. and closed Sunday or by appointment only. For more information, visit ambiancestone.com or call 860-357-3183 or email office@ambiancestone.com

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