From Today’s Garden Center
The Altum family is in talks to sell the garden center/landscape company’s 23 acres to a developer that had approached them to build a strip mall on the property.
The property was not “on the market,” but the time was right to sell, says President Dana Altum. The garden center is located outside of Indianapolis. The developer wants to build a Kroger store, a gas station and more. The garden center only uses 8 acres, and the rest was purchased to expand its horticultural services in the future. Even then the company was left with too many unused acres that still required taxes and utility payments.
“Times have changed, and no longer can garden centers ‘over build’ facilities,” says President Dana Altum. “Because of commercial growth into outlying areas, many garden center owners become real estate investors and they need to assess their real estate situation and see if their land may have become more valuable than the business that is on it.”
The sale gives the operation the chance to relocate on a smaller, more affordable plot of land and build a facility designed to be more profitable from the ground up. “The vision for the new facility will have more flexibility to expand and contract sales floor based on season and flexible utilization of facility to use for event rental,” Altum says.
It’ll also give them the opportunity to build a more energy efficient building and reduce the cost of operation.
“We are excited for this opportunity and want to locate as nearby as possible to keep the current loyal customer base,” Altum says.