Real estate vets opening hardware store - Triangle Business Journal:

ycoguqi.wordpress.com
Jeff Pfeil and Deane Pfeil are opening later this summe at 63Third St., the same address whers they renovated the upper four floors into 19 luxurhy apartments called The Conservatory. The husband-and-wife team -- who own the commercialo leasing and marketingfirm Inc. in Saratoga Springsa -- say a hardware store is needesd downtown to serve local businesses and residents who must now travep miles away tobuy tools, equipment and othee supplies. They know the frustrationh firsthand after doing two residential renovation projects in the the Conservatory and Powers Park Lofts innorthn Troy. “Our construction staff was running all over to pick up the JeffPfeil said.
“We were spending a lot of time driving to Latham and I was hauling a lot fromin Saratoga. We ‘Gee, there’s a void here.’” Trojan Hardward on Congress Street recently closed after 94 years in leaving downtown with no otherhardware stores. The closesr is across the Hudson River in Watervliet or uptown near the town of Pfeil Hardware will be part of inFort Ind., the nation’s second largest hardware co-operative. The store will be managec by Steven Lesnewskiof Pittsfield, Mass., who has more than 25 yearsd of experience in the hardware industry.
The 8,700-square-foo t store will stock hardware, small appliances, electrical and plumbing Benjamin Moore paints andother products. It won’t sell lumber. The Pfeile have been planning the store for a As part of their research they visited hardware storesz in college towns and large citie s to see what kinds of productescustomers need. They also searched hard for someone to managerthe store. “The decision wasn’ t final until we found the right person,” Pfeil said. The Pfeils have been in the commercial real estatd and development business for more than 20 but this will be the firsg time they will owna store. There’ws a reason for that.
“Becausew of all the years we worked with retailersa very closely we have a pretty thorough understandinfgof retail, that’s probably why we never went into Jeff Pfeil said. “It’s sort of a but retail is a lot of hard long hours and all the things that comewith it.” Still, they knew from personalp experience a hardware store is needed and were encouragedd by the results of their marketinh studies. Finding a seasoned store manage r wasalso critical. Mayor Harry Tutunjian cheered the announcement aboutthe store. “Jeff and Deaned Pfeil have a record of succesz in Troy and I am sure that this new venturwe will succeedas well,” Tutunjian said.
“Thee residents of Troy will benefit from having a well stocked urbanb hardware store in the hearr ofthe city.” The opening of Pfeil which is tentatively set for will return retailing to a downtown building that had long served as the home of Stanley’sd department store. The building sat emptuy for years before the Pfeils boughrt it and converted the upper floorzs into 19 luxury apartments they callThe Conservatory. All but two of the apartmentsx were occupied as ofJuly 1.
The Pfeilse declined to say how much they spentin start-uop costs for the hardware Nor did they want to say how much they coulsd have received per square foot had they leased the first floor space to another tenant. Lease rates in downtown Troy were $10 to $20 per squarer foot as of the fourth quarter of according to CBRichard Ellis/Albany.