Romeos buy the Garden Time property

By Mark Frost, Chronicle Editor

After 51 years and two generations, the Troestra family has sold their Garden Time property to the automotive Romeo family of Glens Falls.

The garden center will continue operating this year.

“I’ll be open for business right up through October 31st,” Frank Troelstra told The Chronicle. “So I’ll still go through the mum season, the pumpkin season, the fall season, but I’ll no longer sell poinsettias. No more Christmas trees. And I think we have to
be out of here by April. Totally vacated. So, we’ll have some sales. Possibly an auction.”

Mr. Trolestra’s brothers Fred, Jim and Eric will continue to operate their thriving shed and outdoor structure business. They will have to relocate its display area adjacent to Garden Time but already have display locations adjacent to Northway Exit 16 in Wilton and in Halfmoon.

The family’s Silo restaurant and gift shop at Northway Exit 19 will also continue.

Frank Troelstra operates the garden center that his father Harry started in 1975. “The small business garden center guy is a fading breed,” he said. “They all age out and then it’s done. I’m gonna miss all that stuff. I’ve seen generations come through here after 51 years.”

He said of selling the property, “There’s no third generation. You know, my brothers and I were all in our 60s. And I guess, is there really any good time to sell? But eventually, you have to. And so…if somebody’s interested, you listen. You know, I’d like to see it proceed as another garden center. That’s the way my dad would have wanted it. But in today’s society, nobody wants to work 70 hours a week. Nobody wants to work weekends.

“My dad installed, you know, my brothers and I, the old European work ethic, when the sun comes up, that’s when you work, you quit when the sun goes down. And that’s what we’ve done. That’s all I know.”

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Mr. Romeo told The Chronicle, “We don’t have anything specifically set for the property, but when it came available, it’s a great piece of property to marry with the Auto Outlet.”

Romeo Auto Outlet operates on Quaker Road just east of Garden Time.

Mr. Romeo said that after leasing the Auto Outlet site for five years, they’re closing on purchase of it next week.

In all, he said, “I think it’s a total of 18 or 19 acres on Quaker Road with great frontage — phenomenal to have that much acreage there.”

He said some might see the purchases as speculative, but “Real estate usually doesn’t go down, and they’re not making any more road frontage on Quaker Road, and it was a garden center, so the land is in good shape.”

The Romeo family has recently purchased two Glens Falls dealerships — Glens Falls Toyota on Broad Street and Whiteman Chevrolet on Dix Avenue; both now carry the Romeo name.

When it’s suggested people may speculate the dealerships will move to Quaker Road, Mr. Romeo says, “They sure are going to speculate. Maybe eventually, but you won’t see that happen for a long time. You’ll be retired by then, maybe.”

He said of Garden Time, “Those guys have been in the community for a long, long time. I’ve gone there my whole life, and actually lived next to Frank for a little while. They’re great guys, and they run a great business, and they’re just ready to move on, and only for the reason that there’s not another generation that wants to do it.

“I’m excited and gracious that they decided to pass it along to us, and we’ll see what we can do with it. I’m sure one day there’ll be something beautiful there. But right now, and I know you probably think I’m holding my cards close to my vest, but we really don’t, not right now.

“There is a barn out back. We are going to do some renovations to that and do some service work out of it for our dealerships, but that’s really the only thing on the whole property that you’ll see for a few years.”

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Frank Troelstra recalls, “My dad was a dairy farmer in New Jersey, and he rented farms. He heard that there was some farms for sale in Washington County, and then the real estate agent said, ‘Well, there’s this gentleman on Dix Ave. He’s got a little garden center’ — comes to the house, a storefront and some greenhouses on about two acres of land, right here across from East Field. ‘Would you be interested?’ He said, yeah, I’ll take a look at it. The rest is history. I think he purchased that for $65,000 back in ‘67. It was a lot of money in 67. Absolutely.”

Frank says of his dad, “He knew nothing about plants and stuff. Ben Oudekerk was the the person he bought it from. and he stayed on for a year, showed him how to transplant, you know, sow seeds, and I remember it was very small. Just my mom and dad, maybe a helper or two.”

Frank’s mom Ellen turned 90 in November. What does she think of the sale?

“She says, ‘It’s time.”

He says his wife Becky agrees.

Frank says, “I’m gonna miss the plants. That’s what I want to school for.”

He graduated from Del Val — Delaware Valley College of Science and Agriculture in Doylestown, Pennsylvania — in 1980, “when you started The Chronicle.”

He took leaps as his father had.

“I started the snowplowing business. I had 120 accounts in the peak of the season. I had Aviation Mall. I remember the blizzard in ‘93, March ‘93. That was the only mall that was open during the snowstorm. So there’s some proud accomplishments there.

“I did lawn care, sprinkler systems, we did a fireplace shop. So we tried a whole bunch of stuff. You’d kind of see an opportunity,
you go for it and try to make something out of it. You always seize the opportunity and trying to make it work later.”

He said he’ll miss customers some of whom he’s known for generations and his staff members.

And, “Gonna miss the trade shows. I’m gonna miss the salespeople, the vendors that I always do business with, you know, the challenge of how much stuff should I order, how much stuff should I grow?

He said, “It provided a good life for me, even though it was hard. You earned every penny. Trust me, it wasn’t given to you.”

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