If you want a real estate agent who can perform an overhead smash on the tennis court and strike an arabesque with equal grace, meet Solo Agent, Nick Stuccio. 

Though his family’s legacy was rooted in pizza dough and tomato sauce, Stuccio’s passions led him in a very different direction. “I grew up in Wilkes-Barre in a large Italian family. My great-uncle, Tony Maccrone, started making pizza, and every subsequent relative who came, he would teach them. We have a bunch of pizzerias in our family, including all the Mack’s Pizzas at the Jersey Shore,” said Stuccio, who made a very different career choice. 

“I never wanted to be a dancer when I was a kid, but by the time I was going to college, I majored in bio to be a doctor like my father,” he said. One day at Skidmore College, his career plans took a U-turn. “I was walking through the sports complex on my way to the basketball court and stumbled upon a ballet class,” said Stuccio. “The teacher asked if I wanted to join.”  Stuccio never looked back. 

He came to Philly in 1986 to join the Pennsylvania Ballet (now the Philly Ballet). That is where Stuccio met his wife, Annie, in a rehearsal studio. “I was a serious classical ballet guy,” he said. “Later, I fell in love with contemporary, experimental ballet.” After nine seasons with the Company, Stuccio retired, but not from his love of the arts. 

A visit to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe inspired Stuccio to bring that same creative energy to Philadelphia with a festival of its own. Talent was abundant in the City, but it lacked the venues and promoters to showcase them. In 1997, Stuccio co-founded the Philly Fringe Festival, now known as Fringe Arts. The first Festival was held in Old City for five days, featuring 60 performing groups presenting their work in whatever venues were available: theaters, nightclubs, galleries, alleys, abandoned buildings, and even in a parked car. Over the next 27 years, Stuccio expanded the Fringe from a five-day event to a four-week festival, featuring thousands of performers from across the country and around the world. “We once flew in an entire Polish opera company,” he said. The festival helped cement Philadelphia’s reputation as a hub for bold, experimental performance.

In 2013, Stuccio spearheaded FringeArts’ move into its first permanent home, renovating a historic pumping station for the city’s fire trucks into a performance center at 140 Christopher Columbus Boulevard featuring a theater, studio space, restaurant, beer garden, and box office.

But wait. There’s more! Starting in 2003, when not being a Dad and improving his tennis game, Stuccio had a side gig as a developer in southwest Philly. “My wife and I started buying row houses, renovating and renting them. My mother grew up there, so I had a family connection to the neighborhood,” said Stuccio.  In 2024, he stepped down from his leadership position at Fringe Arts and focused on real estate development. “The key is thoughtful growth that maintains diversity and affordability,” he said. That same philosophy of balance and integrity guides his approach to real estate today, and one that aligns with that of Solo Real Estate. 

When Stuccio eventually expanded his range beyond Philadelphia, he started looking at properties in upstate Pennsylvania in the Upper Delaware River Region along the NY border in Wayne County. “It’s a beautiful, unspoiled, bucolic area, protected from fracking, and it’s the source of the Delaware River. I love it there. We bought a vacation home that we rent out as a mountain retreat Airbnb when we are not there. It’s on five acres, and I love to garden.” Stuccio feels at home in Wayne County, northeast of where he grew up in Wilkes-Barre.

So how did this former ballet dancer, cultural impresario, and developer who plays tennis 5-7 days a week, end up teaming up with Solo Real Estate? “I’ve known Deborah Solo for fifteen years,” said Stuccio. “She is a huge art patron and a big fan of the Fringe festival. As a developer and realtor, I needed a broker to finalize home sales. I’ve been with Solo for one year, and it’s great.”

Whether he’s curating a performance or guiding a client through a property, Stuccio approaches every project with balance, grace, and vision. Get in touch with Nick to make your next real estate move a work of art.