{"id":854908,"date":"2026-04-05T10:45:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T10:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/854908\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T10:45:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T10:45:59","slug":"sal-lupolis-focus-on-jobs-and-a-football-mentality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/854908\/","title":{"rendered":"Sal Lupoli’s focus on jobs and a football mentality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sal Lupoli is bullish on the economy \u2014 even if that means building 80 square feet at a time.<\/p>\n

He said he believes in the power of the individual, including franchising a new pizza shop at a gas station that only employs two people.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmall entrepreneurs are the backbone of our country. Without them, we are done,\u201d he said this week from his new office in the Riverwalk complex in Lawrence. \u201cThey create jobs, but we\u2019re strangling them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s proud of his Italian heritage and East Boston roots. He graduated from Chelmsford High and went to Northeastern University on a football scholarship, later earning a master\u2019s degree at the MIT Sloan School of Management to keep growing. And that\u2019s what he wants for Massachusetts and New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need New Hampshire and New Hampshire needs Massachusetts,\u201d he said. \u201cThe way I look at it is if we don\u2019t have each other, we\u2019re in a lot of trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Herald sought out Sal Lupoli, CEO of Lupoli Companies and founder of Sal\u2019s Pizza, to dig deeper into what is working in the Bay State. What we learned is that this former nose tackle isn\u2019t afraid of a challenge and knows how to pick himself up after getting knocked down. He has projects in Lawrence, Lowell, Haverhill, Littleton and Hampton Beach, N.H., where he\u2019s reimagining the famed Casino that draws thousands to the ice-cold surf in the summer.<\/p>\n

Coach Cato<\/p>\n

He first learned resilience from legendary high school football coach Tom Cato, who taught in Holliston and then Chelmsford.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Cato was one of the great influences of my life,\u201d said Lupoli, who played for Cato his senior year. \u201cFootball teaches you loyalty, loyalty not only to the sport but to your teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cato was unlike any coach you ever met. He inspired you to push for the best person you could possibly be \u2014 and never give up reaching for that goal. If you got knocked down along the way, there\u2019s only one way to get up. It\u2019s up to you, he\u2019d say. Figure it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve transferred all that to business,\u201d said Lupoli. \u201cPlace yourself behind the team and create jobs.\u201d It\u2019s all about having faith and commitment, he added.<\/p>\n

Slice of life<\/p>\n

Lupoli is launching a podcast, juggling projects, and making pizza.<\/p>\n

Sal\u2019s Pizza has expanded to 130 locations across New England and is the official pizza provider for the New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox, along with providing pizza to the TD Garden for the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics.<\/p>\n

Lupoli is also the second largest commercial real estate developers in New England, with more than $1.5 billion in local investments.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s also thinking microeconomics. He backs hard-working employees with an entrepreneurial spirit to open Sal\u2019s pizza outlets in gas stations and convenience stores. And those outlets only need 80 square feet to succeed. He calls it \u201chyper-local,\u201d and it works.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also in Market Basket stores and sells his pizza in colleges and schools and just about any outlet that needs a quick slice.<\/p>\n

His company employs 500 people, with 1,200 more \u201cunder our umbrella.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe create jobs,\u201d he stressed. And, the two most important partners are his son, Sal Jr., and daughter, Mary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the richest guy in the world because my children came to work at my business,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the biggest gift I could ever receive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Field of dreams<\/p>\n

He also gets that gateway cities \u2014 Lawrence, Lowell \u2014 need someone who believes in them. So he has set up his business in the old mill buildings of Lawrence, where his Riverwalk Innovation District is home to over 200 companies and 6,000 people who now live and work there.<\/p>\n

Atop the parking garage is a full-sized, all-purpose field where the local teams have access to an Astroturf gem. When fields are often littered with the decay of city life, this field is pristine. The children can just play their hearts out and use the facilities inside.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our football field in the sky,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the epitome of giving back to the community with pizazz.<\/p>\n

Big city lesson<\/p>\n

Lupoli struggled during the pandemic, like everybody else, but he adapted. He\u2019s focused on mixed-use development where people can work and live.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s fighting against rent control to allow landlords to keep investing in their properties with a focus on the future. He has pivoted when others have not.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment has got to shift its thinking, and some communities have done that,\u201d said Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce CEO Jim Rooney. \u201cThey need to embrace the role economic development has in job creation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Business is not a bad word.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need new growth in Boston. This needs to be the focus,\u201d Tamara Small, CEO of NAIOP Massachusetts, put it bluntly.<\/p>\n

Rooney says big cities must develop a \u201cnew playbook\u201d and roll it out quickly.<\/p>\n

Which brings us back to Lupoli. When former Mayor Tom Menino wanted someone to set up shop in the relatively dormant Seaport, Sal\u2019s Pizza bit.<\/p>\n

Lupoli immediately offered Herald employees a 10% discount, because journalists always need a quick meal on deadline. His employees didn\u2019t treat us any less than full-paying customers. The opposite, in fact. We felt part of the new neighborhood that only had the Convention Center as a draw.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all changed now. We\u2019ve since moved out and the Seaport is the place to be.<\/p>\n

Where will the next Seaport spring up? We have an idea: call Sal and see what he thinks.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoston needs to pivot,\u201d Rooney added, so the cranes will come back to the skyline.<\/p>\n

If you have a Sunday profile idea, email joed@bostonherald.com<\/p>\n

\"SalSal Lupoli next to a blown-up photo of his grandparents first pizza shop in Revere. (Stuart Cahill\/Boston Herald)
\n\"SalSal Lupoli’s Riverwalk complex in a mural inside his Lawrence office. (Stuart Cahill\/Boston Herald)
\n\"SalSal Lupoli said each job he creates matters. (Stuart Cahill\/Boston Herald)
\n\"AllAll the project’s in Sal’s office tell the story of a growing company. (Stuart Cahill\/Boston Herald)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sal Lupoli is bullish on the economy \u2014 even if that means building 80 square feet at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[433,11963,16820,9679,116780,116781,16297,9453,7,929,2941,4247,38589,7502,42405,88,18166,15880,107578],"class_list":{"0":"post-854908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-boston","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-chelmsford","11":"tag-development","12":"tag-east-boston","13":"tag-eastie","14":"tag-economy","15":"tag-food","16":"tag-football","17":"tag-latest-headlines","18":"tag-lawrence","19":"tag-local-news","20":"tag-lowell","21":"tag-massachusetts","22":"tag-new-hampshire","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-real-estate","25":"tag-small-business","26":"tag-watchdog"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116351704764671314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}