Garden Street Iron & Metal expanding to Exchange Avenue

BUYER: L&R Properties of Southwest Florida LLC (principal: Rob Weber), Fort Myers

SELLER: Naples Lumber & Supply Co. Inc.

PROPERTY: 4246 Exchange Ave., Naples

PRICE: $2.3 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.3 million, March 2000

LAW FIRM ON DEED: Conroy Conroy & Durant PA, Naples

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Garden Street Iron & Metal Inc. purchased a lumber yard on Exchange Avenue for $2.3 million. The price equated to $50 per square foot.

The 4.18-acre property features a 25,485-square-foot building and a 20,350-square-foot building with air-conditioned storage space. The new owner plans to use the Exchange Avenue property to replace Garden Street Iron & Metal's smaller existing facility, leased in Naples.

“A lot of our clientele lives in the Golden Gate area. It will basically act as a feeder for our larger yard up in Fort Myers,” says Rob Weber, president of Garden Street Iron & Metal.

Weber says he hopes to have the new facility operating in mid-February and plans to hire 10 to 12 people.

“As a 53-year-old, family-owned business, we learned in the early '80s not to throw our money around to expand,” Weber says. “If we can't pay for it in-house we don't do it.”