A commercial center on Rochester's South Broadway now has new ownership at its helm.
Five years after building the 65,000-square-foot complex at 37 Woodlake Drive, local developers Darren Groteboer and Tom Haleyhave handed off Rochester Market Squareto S.A. Group Properties Inc.of Oak Park, Ill.
The shift happened at the start of this month.
While the ownership is different, fans of Rochester Market Square will find almost everything inside the building is still the same.
The tenants include Bright Ideas lighting, Haley Comfort Systems, Sherwin Williams Paints, EcoWater Systemsand Custom Retaining Walls.
ADVERTISEMENT
Rochester Market Square remains heavily focused on home construction with tenants selling fireplaces, lighting, paint and more, Groteboer says it is time to adjust that approach.
"Tom and I originally thought… and what we tried to stick with… was that would be a home design center," he says.
The concept was to bring several home related businesses under one roof. Then when building a new home or remodeling, homeowners could make choices on flooring, lighting and other products with one stop. But that was in 2005, when new home construction was booming. Within a few years, the recession hit and the new home market is still struggling to recover.
"It is time for the mall to make a change toward being more of a normal mall setting and not a home design center," Groteboer says. "Our goal when we were trying to sell it was to sell to somebody who was more of a retail mall professional. That's not what we know about."
That's where S.A. Group Properties comes in. The commercial property firm also owns undeveloped land in south Rochester.
Besides having a 8,000-square-foot showroom, Haley Comfort Systems also has its corporate offices in the center. Tom Haley is an owner of the fireplace company that previously was based in Plainview. Haley will remain as a tenant.
Groteboer, who also owns Carpet One in Rochester, decided not to renew the lease of his small satellite store in the center and will consolidate it with his store at 5139 U.S. 52 North.
"It just made sense for us," he says.
ADVERTISEMENT
All of the Carpet One staff from Market Square were transferred to the north store, he said.
