He’s not just your average Joe, and now he has a street named for him.
The city has co-named a busy Staten Island intersection for Corrado “Joe” Manfredi, whose auto dealership empire was launched in his adopted home of Brooklyn before it blossomed across the narrows on the Rock.
New Dorp Lane at Hylan Boulevard — where Manfredi Chevrolet is located — was christened “Joe Manfredi Way” during a ceremony Friday morning that was attended by a cast from the honoree’s Brooklyn past, including Monsignor David Cassato of St. Athanasius Church in Bensonhurst and the Hon. Michael Pesce, the presiding judge for the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division. Bay Ridge Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis was also on hand.
Manfredi immigrated to Brooklyn at the age of 14 in 1952 from his hometown of Mola di Bari, Italy, making his home in Carroll Gardens. A graduate of Brooklyn Automotive High School, he worked for a number of mechanic shops in Brooklyn before landing a job at Safe Rambler, where he eventual moved into sales.
He ended up buying the dealership from its owner before opening two other car lots, Safe Toyota and Safe Suburu. In 1962, he launched the Manfredi Auto Group and owned a number of dealerships on Coney Island Avenue before making the jump to Staten Island, according to his son Nick, who called the street co-naming “bittersweet.”