Former home of landmark hardware store put up for sale
STAMFORD — The vacant building at 907 High Ridge Road has been put up for sale, a year after Keough’s Paint & Hardware store closed its doors in Stamford.
Commercial real estate services firm Newmark Knight Frank is marketing the 13,000-square-foot
property, a two-level structure that stands between the Turn of River Shopping Center and a Shell gas station on one of the city’s busiest roads. The property has been owned by the same family since it was built in 1969.
“We’ve had interest from a number of different users — mostly ‘retailish,’” Cory Gubner, a Stamford-based executive managing director of Newmark Knight Frank, said in an interview. “I’m fully confident that we’ll have a buyer in a short amount of time.”
The prospective buyer might also occupy the building, according to NKF officials. The sale price will be negotiated.
While the large green-lettered front sign for Keough’s has been stripped from the building, its exterior otherwise looks the same as it did when it shut down on Dec. 22, 2019. The store had operated there for about 30 years.
It attracted loyal customers from Stamford and beyond, but the store increasingly grappled with e-commerce competition. The April 2018 opening of The Home Depot’s store on West Main Street, on the city’s West Side, further diminished sales.
As a result, Keough decided not to renew its lease. Its other store, at 1 Ethan Allen Highway in Ridgefield, is still in business.
The vacancy in the Stamford building did not factor into the owners’ decision to sell, according to NKF officials.
Neighboring business owners said they would like to see another store open at the property.
“When everybody is doing well and when everything is filled on the street, that’s the best situation,” said Judith Roll, owner of Judy’s Bar + Kitchen at 927 High Ridge.
Across the road stands another vacant building, at 950 High Ridge. Except for pop-up Halloween costume stores, the property has stood empty since the closing of a Mrs. Green’s Natural Market in 2016.
About 15,000 square feet of space is available for lease there, according to the website of National Realty & Development Corp., which is marketing the property.
A message left for NRDC seeking further information about its plans for the property was not returned.
In a few weeks, the road will face its latest and largest vacancy: Lord + Taylor is set to close its department store at 110 High Ridge on Feb. 15 or in the following two weeks.
Still, the resounding majority of the road’s storefronts are filled. At the same time, it is attracting newcomers such as Cedar Corners General Store, which debuted last October at 932 High Ridge.
“There’s not a lot of a vacancy on High Ridge,” Gubner said. “The traffic is good, and the (customer) demographics are great. Despite COVID, it seems like High Ridge has weathered the storm really well.”