Petitti Garden Centers to open new location in Gale’s Brunswick store

When one store closes, another opens, at least that’s been the story for Northeast Ohio IGC Petitti Garden Centers this year.

Petitti’s Richmond Heights, Ohio, location, which operated out of a Sears department store, closed this past spring when Sears decided to shutter the mall anchor along with many others nationwide.  

At the time, A.J. Petitti, president of family-owned Petitti Garden Centers, said there were plans for expansion in other cities. In July, he shared details about the new Canton, Ohio, store, that is being renovated and should open by March 2018.

However, on Sept. 1, the company’s 9th location will open in a Gale’s Garden Center store in Brunswick, Ohio, which is closing Aug. 30. Petitti will share the approximately 6-acre property with a Sheetz gas station that is being built on the parcel. The construction is scheduled to begin in March, Petitti says.

The gas station will be separate from the garden center space, which will include both indoor and outdoor retail in a medium-sized store, Petitti says. Petitti is leasing the property from the developer and will remain open during the Sheetz construction.

“It will be interesting to have a garden center basically wrapped around a Sheetz,” Petitti says, explaining that the Sheetz store will be built in what is now a parking lot.

Pam Donzelli, whose family owns The Gale’s Westlake Garden Center and Donzell's Flower and Garden Center locations, says her family has no ownership in the Brunswick location, so it will not affect their business, which is part of a brand that comprises now four locations in Northeast Ohio.

"Gale’s is definitely a popular and anchored brand no doubt with the Cleveland community," Donzelli says. "We are also pulling the younger generations strongly, which is awesome. The store I operate, Gale’s Westlake, is growing, and we are jammin’ this year!"

The owner of the Brunswick Gale’s, Burt Young, declined to comment. According to an article in The Medina Gazette about the closing, he’s been operating that location since it opened nearly 30 years ago.

“It’s a combination of two things,” Young told The Gazette. “Stand-alone garden centers are becoming a dinosaur pretty much … plus I’m retiring from the business. So when the opportunity came up to sell, we sold it. It just all worked out.”

Petitti says that in another round of closings Sears announced over the summer, the company indicated that the Middleburg Heights, Ohio, store will close. The last of the Sears/Petitti locations will shutter along with it at the end of October, he says.

“We saw that coming. We didn’t expect it this quickly, but it worked out pretty well,” he says, citing expansion in other areas, including renovations at the Boardman, Ohio, location.