Betteridge, the 117-year-old jewelry store that has sat as snugly as a gem in velvet at 117 Greenwich Ave. since the 1940s, is moving to 239 Greenwich Ave.
Owner Terry Betteridge, whose great-grandfather and grandfather founded the business in 1897, said growth is the reason for the move.
“We”™ve gone from nine employees to 45 in our current building,” Betteridge said recently as he walked between his shop at 117 Greenwich Ave. and the new shop to open in May at the site of the former Restoration Hardware. “We are now using closets for offices. It”™s ridiculous ”” we have to move certain things to get at other things.”
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank Retail”™s Jessica Curtis, senior managing director, and James Ritman, executive vice president and managing director, assisted both Betteridge and the 239 Greenwich Ave. owners, Greenwich-based Aberdeen Properties Inc. and White Plains, N.Y.-based Acadia Realty Trust, in the lease transaction.
The Aberdeen/Acadia partnership purchased the more than 100-year-old landmark property in 1997, whereupon Aberdeen Properties undertook a two-year renovation of the mixed-use property.
“This prominent location is befitting a world-class jeweler,” Curtis said.
“It”™s the 50-yard line for the best retail in Greenwich,” Betteridge said. “It”™s really dead center. I”™m happy with it and I feel very, very good about it.”
Betteridge said his current business footprint is 6,000 square feet; the new address will have 13,000 square feet.
The new space will host, among other additions, a place for diamond cutting. In January, Betteridge will fly to Botswana, where the company rents an office, to bid on rough diamonds at a government auction. Betteridge placed his company among the largest diamond buyers in the world ”” along with the likes of Tiffany and Lazare ”” saying, “We”™re sitting at the table with the big boys. There are not too many players.”
The logistics of moving what The Wall Street Journal has termed “Wall Street”™s jeweler” several blocks downhill involve, among other things, made-to-order display cases. Some are being made locally and some in Grand Junction, Colo. (Betteridge”™s other store locations are in Vail and Aspen in Colorado and in Palm Beach, Fla.)
Restoration Hardware has moved into the old post office, also on Greenwich Avenue, and is open for business.
“This has become the most beautiful part of Greenwich Avenue and home to some of the most upscale brands in the world,” Betteridge said, citing neighbors like Ralph Lauren and Hermès. “The building retains that historic feel that encompasses not only the longevity of our business, but also the heritage of the town itself.”
