A few frantic weeks of moving will come to an end Thursday when Kelley Farm and Garden reopens in the old P&C building on Route 7 west of Cobleskill.
Farm and Garden owner Scott Kelley purchased the former market last fall and planned the next-door move over the winter.
Besides getting new quarters, the move gives Kelley’s twice as much floor space, from 10,000 square feet to 20,000.
The store is also adding the True Value hardware line and increasing inventory in other areas, Mr. Kelley said.
Having more floor space allows the business to move some items formerly outdoors to inside. Fencing and garden accessories such as arbors and trellises will now be inside, Mr. Kelley said.
Kelley’s is now entering one of its busiest times of the year, so the nursery will stay where it is, with its own check-out area. Mr. Kelley plans to move the nursery in July, after a 3,000-square-foot greenhouse addition is finished.
The greenhouse will allow Kelley’s to have an extended growing season.
“We won’t have it year-’round, but we could have it through Christmas,” Mr. Kelley said.
Kelley’s closed yesterday and today, Tuesday and Wednesday, to complete the final move. Employees have been shifting items to the new store bit by bit over the past few weeks.
“We thought maybe we wouldn’t have to close,” Mr. Kelley said. “But then it would have taken a couple of more weeks and we would have had both stores open. It would have been crazy.”
And it’s been crazy enough. Mr. Kelley has had about 30––employees, friends, family and vendors––working on the move.
He wanted to move earlier, before the spring rush, but the former market needed too much work.
Mr. Kelley didn’t take possession till November, and the building required a new heating system, new lights and new flooring. Also, he had to remove the supermarket coolers that remained.
When he announced the purchase in the fall, Mr. Kelley said he planned to put a new business in the existing Farm and Garden location.
Those plans are on hold for now.
“That’s still a question,” he said. “We’re not totally certain yet, and we want to complete one project before we start another.”