Painting the Town: Kevin Sheridan Makes Rutgers Painting a Household Name

Kevin Sheridan is a born entrepreneur. Starting in fifth grade he was selling MSO Packers stickers door to door to raise money for football equipment. By high school, he was spending summers painting and powerwashing houses—again knocking on doors to solicit business. By his sophomore year at Rutgers University, he had founded his own business, Rutgers Painting.

"I needed a way to pay for college," says Sheridan, whose wrestling scholarship only covered part of the cost.

Going door to door in fifth through eighth grade selling those stickers provided "more than I could learn in any business school," said Sheridan, who, for the record, earned his degree in history. 

"I did that for four years, and you can still see those Packer stickers on some windows. That's Maplewood," he said.

The youngest of four children raised by a single mother in Maplewood, Sheridan is a real go-getter who always knew he needed to help out as well as make his own way, with the moral support of his tight-knit family.

All the Sheridan kids have the same ethos. Oldest brother Jim earned a lacrosse scholarship to Rutgers, and sister Christine went to the University of New Haven on a volleyball scholarship. Sister Jennifer works as a massage therapist.

"Mom said, 'Listen, if you want to go to college, you've got to get a scholarship.'" Sheridan humbly credits one "lucky" day where he earned second place in the state finals in wrestling for getting him his Rutgers scholarship. In return, Sheridan has given back in spades.

He has coached wrestling at Columbia High School. He has donated vacation stays at a property in Costa Rica to local charity benefits. And he distributes fliers and coupons from other businesses to his customers because he wants to "help other local businesses." Finally, Sheridan periodically donates paint and labor to spruce up the mini-houses for Dickens Village at Ricalton Square in Maplewood.

Most importantly, Sheridan has reached out to his workers. Through a contact at Newark Paint, Sheridan befriended a man from Costa Rica. Eventually, this friend invited Sheridan to come visit his country. 

Sheridan, it seems, fell in love with the lush beauty of the Central American nation, eventually making regular trips to Costa Rica, hiring Costa Rican workers, and building a small beachfront hotel named Villas Almendros.

Sheridan says his Costa Rican workers have great "family values. Most of the guys are 20 to 40 years old and come from families of eight to 10 people. I started sponsoring them to be citizens and started a visa program." Sheridan proudly talks about "two of his guys" who initially spoke no English but are now fluent and have become U.S. citizens.

Sheridan stresses that his workers are not illegals—a common misperception. "I was one of the first companies to start with Costa Rican workers. I got a lot of flack from other companies."

Sheridan became aware of the H2B visa program, which was used for seasonal or migrant workers like loggers. H2B is a temporary work visa that lasts for six months. This was perfect for his "guys." "In the winter, there's no business. I would lose them and have to retrain crews."

The option for many Central Americans hoping to make a living is to pay a coyote about $7,000 to get them into the U.S., said Sheridan. Then they must stay for at least three years to pay off that debt, finding themselves idle and lonely in the offseason and burning through savings.

With an H2B visa, workers can enter legally and go home and visit their families in the winter. 

Sheridan founded Rutgers back in 1992. Now, at 38, he is an established businessman who runs his painting company and also manages a few multi-family properties in and around town. He has an interesting vantage point from which to observe changing demographics in the community.

While visiting about 30 houses a week, Sheridan noticed that "in the last five to seven years, suddenly everyone was from Park Slope," said Sheridan. "It's amazing and cool, a changing of the guard."