Joseph Raitano fell in love with a business idea and it has loved him right back. “An excellent concept,” he said, citing life”™s eternal litmus test: “It works.”
With 40 years in carpet installation ”“ “A ”˜rug”™ged career,” he said ”“ Raitano remains the embodiment of the sound work ethic, but he acted downright rash in May 2008 when he made a business call at the Putnam Home Design Center on Route 6 in Mahopac: a 13,000-square-foot former building supply center being reimagined as a high-ceilinged market centered on home and yard. “I walked in about an installation job and walked out with a store,” he said.
Inside the former Dill”™s Building Center outlet, an elevated pond serves as an unofficial roundabout and home to Big Al, an 8-year-old goldfish tended, along with several koi, by Raitano. Five independent businesses have established themselves around the pond: Valerie DuVall Interiors, G& S Contracting, Eastern Jungle Gym, Schech”™s Pool & Spa and Joe Nicks Floor Covering; plus the host business Putnam Stone & Mason Supply with a desk presence and most of its activity in the side yard.
On a recent day, Putnam Stone”™s Chris Stock was moving a polished granite slab weighing two tons: “Like a 4,000-pound sheet of glass,” he observed.
The companies offer a complementary synergy as Barbara Schech Freer, owner of 42-year-old Schech”™s Pool & Spa Center in Brewster, sees it. “I”™d say 50 percent of the people who walk in look around the entire store,” she said. “Putnam Stone can build you a backyard fire pit. I can supply the furniture. You can get tile. It gives a person more options. And the more that we can offer as a group, the more business we”™ll get.”
The entire store is hosting a raffle-fueled open house April 16-17. Another benefit of the economy of cooperation: “We can offer $6,000 in raffles. Alone, I could never offer that.”
Reflecting on the concept, Schech said, “The economics of this works as opposed to a freestanding shop,” which she runs (4,000 square feet) on Old Route 6 in Brewster. “Also, it allows us to better serve our customers at this side of the county.”
The building is too big for a single business of the sort Putnam Home Design Center has to date attracted ”“ but a nice fit for multiple users of 1,800 square feet. The jungle gym company will also make use of the side yard. Schech is so pleased with the arrangement ”“ “It”™s been great” ”“ she is about to double her floor presence to 3,600 square feet. The ceiling is 24-plus feet.
The building occupies a prime location, as Putnam Building Stone general manager Paul Bucello sees it. “The response has been great. The businesses in the design center can compete with the large package stores, but they still offer the local flavor. I would say nine out of 10 customers who walk in the door deal with the owner or a relative of the owner.”
Raitano, too, harked to the family style friendliness ”“ his son Nick is his business partner ”“ citing positive word of mouth as his biggest marketing tool. “You didn”™t come in for an area rug,” he said. “But you look around. You get talking. You may see something you need now or that a friend needs. Or you may come back. The same concept brings people to me and to Schech”™s Pools at the same time. People talk and our word of mouth is excellent.” (Besides area rugs, Raitano can cover your floor with laminates, hardwoods and seemingly every other known product.)
Bucello believes, without naming names, that he has two new tenants lined up. He credits Putnam Stone with spotting the location ”“ “Convenient for Westchester County, convenient for Putnam County” ”“ and then with “brainstorming about getting together with other businesses that did not want a standalone, but who were focused inside and outside the home. Like a co-op they would share the overhead and the savings would allow them to compete with a better price ”“ to compete against bigger stores.”
An unintended result, perhaps, is a professional camaraderie: “You might not come in seeking Valerie, but she is there and she is throwing ideas around,” Bucello said of Valerie DuVall Interiors. “She is a gem.”
Bucello said the koi pond offers a pleasant spot to think or chat. It is also part of Putnam Stone”™s product offerings.
Pete Bardunias, president of the Greater Mahopac-Carmel Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber was working with Putnam Stone as a facilitator to attract businesses ”“ “We”™re certainly a part of the process” ”“ and said: “It”™s a great idea. Putnam Stone is doing some terrific things there.”
Bucello said, “The response has been great.”
