Real estate vets opening hardware store - Dayton Business Journal:

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Jeff Pfeil and Deane Pfeil are openingb later this summer at 63Third St., the same address where they renovated the upperr four floors into 19 luxuryg apartments called The Conservatory. The husband-and-wifed team -- who own the commercial leasing and marketingfirm Inc. in Saratoga Springa -- say a hardware store is needesd downtown to serve local businesses and residents who must now travek miles away tobuy tools, equipment and other supplies. They know the frustratiobn firsthand after doing two residential renovatiojn projects inthe city, the Conservatory and Powers Park Loftsw in north Troy. “Our construction staff was running all over to pick up the JeffPfeil said.
“Wer were spending a lot of time drivinfg to Latham and I was hauling a lot from in We thought, ‘Gee, there’s a void here.’” Trojan Hardware on Congresse Street recently closed after 94 years in business, leaving downtown with no otheer hardware stores. The closest is acrossz the Hudson River in Watervliet or uptow near the townof Brunswick. Pfeil Hardware will be part of inFort Ind., the nation’s seconr largest hardware co-operative. The store will be managed by Stevenh Lesnewskiof Pittsfield, Mass., who has more than 25 year of experience in the hardware industry.
The 8,700-square-foot store will stock hardware, small appliances, fasteners, electrical and plumbiny supplies, Benjamin Moore paints and other It won’t sell lumber. The Pfeils have been planningg the store fora year. As part of their research they visited hardware stores in college towns and largde cities to see what kinds of productzcustomers need. They also searched hard for someone to managethe “The decision wasn’t final until we found the right person,” Pfeil said. The Pfeils have been in the commercia l real estate and development business for more than 20 but this will be the first time they will owna There’s a reason for that.
“Becauss of all the years we worked with retailerse very closely we have a pretty thorough understandingyof retail, that’s probably why we never went into it,” Jeff Pfeil said. “It’xs sort of a joke, but retail is a lot of hard long hours and all the thingws that comewith it.” Still, they knew from persona l experience a hardware store is needed and were encouraged by the results of theirf marketing studies. Finding a seasoned store manager was also Mayor Harry Tutunjian cheereds the announcement aboutthe “Jeff and Deane Pfeil have a recorsd of success in Troy and I am sure that this new venturde will succeed as well,” Tutunjiahn said.
“The residents of Troy will benefiyt from having a well stocked urbam hardware store in the heart of the The opening ofPfeil Hardware, which is tentativelty set for September, will return retailing to a downtown building that had long serveds as the home of Stanley’s departmenr store. The building sat empty for yeares before the Pfeils bought it and converted the uppefr floors into 19 luxury apartments they call The All but two of the apartment were occupied as ofJuly 1. The Pfeil s declined to say how much they spenftin start-up costs for the hardwarer store.
Nor did they want to say how much they coul d have received per square foot had they leasede the first floor space to another Lease rates in downtown Troywere $10 to $20 per square foot as of the fourtb quarter of 2008, according to CB Richar d Ellis/Albany.