Jeremy Friedman used to compete with Welby Gardens.<\/p>\n
Now, he owns some of the company\u2019s land and employs its former owner and CEO.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just excited to have this opportunity that most business folks would love, when your competitor closes its door and leaves the market share to be had,\u201d said the owner of Arvada-based Blooma Farms.<\/p>\n
His wholesale grow operation, which primarily sells flowers and vegetables to independent garden centers, is growing into 5 acres of greenhouses at 6710 Washington St. formerly owned by Welby Gardens. Friedman estimated that the legacy plant purveyor was three to four times the size of Blooma when it\u00a0shut down\u00a0over the summer. Welby also operated on 20 acres in west Arvada.<\/p>\n
Blooma, founded in 1981 as Brown\u2019s Greenhouses and acquired by Friedman in 2010, purchased the Adams County property for $4.5 million, public records show. The last time it traded hands was in 1998, when Welby bought the parcel for $740,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re saving the greenhouses, saving some good employees and stepping up our game to be better able to serve our local community,\u201d Friedman said.<\/p>\n
The most notable staffer coming on is Al Gerace, the former owner and CEO of Welby and the\u00a0middle child of Alex and Esther Gerace, the married couple who\u00a0founded the company in 1948. He will lead Blooma\u2019s sales team after decades growing the family business.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a VIP, a hall of famer in our industry,\u201d Friedman said.<\/p>\n
In his new job, Gerace said he\u2019ll focus on growing Blooma\u2019s landscaping side. When Welby closed, he said, landscapers accounted for 60% of its business. That figure is 15% for Blooma, according to Friedman.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to leave them in the lurch,\u201d Gerace said of his former customers. \u201cWelby was a pretty important part of the industry, so we want to continue to get them placed with the quality product Blooma has.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blooma wasn\u2019t necessarily looking to acquire more property, but when Welby announced it was closing, Friedman jumped at the opportunity to expand. If he hadn\u2019t bought the Adams County site, which is in an industrial area, he figures it would\u2019ve likely been redeveloped, much like Welby\u2019s main 20-acre property near West Woods Golf Club in Arvada. That will become an AvalonBay Communities apartment complex, city records show.<\/p>\n
AvalonBay is under contract to buy the land, and the payout will amount to what Welby could\u2019ve made over the next 20 years, Gerace said. He said he wasn\u2019t necessarily looking to sell or close Welby, but the money made the decision easy for the aging family.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 77 years we were very successful, but there was a time when things became too valuable,\u201d Gerace said.<\/p>\n
The Adams County site, with its 120,000 square feet of greenhouses, will join Blooma\u2019s 8 acres and 250,000 square feet of greenhouses across two properties in Arvada. Friedman said the move will enable its majority independent garden center customers to order more perennials, annuals and vegetables.<\/p>\n
He said Blooma has around 350 customers and said he thinks landscaping revenue can become up to 30% of Blooma\u2019s business, in part because Welby served a large percentage of them.<\/p>\n
Blooma also has two other companies under its umbrella: Rocky Mountain Liners and Plum Creek Garden Market. The former is a young plant company, which propagates seedlings and ships them off to be planted worldwide. The latter is a retail outfit that runs four pop-ups in the metro area from spring through mid-summer. Another in Greenwood Village wrapped up its season last week, he said.<\/p>\n
Friedman estimates that his young plant business is now the second biggest in the Centennial State with the closing of Welby, which had a similar outfit called Hardystarts. He said Blooma\u2019s wholesale side is the third or fourth largest in the state.<\/p>\n