After 75 years on Delaware Avenue, Robert Verstandig isn’t calling it quits. He’s going bigger and greener and hopes to have all 18 of his Selkirk greenhouses using renewable resources and making their own energy in the years ahead.
Verstandig said he hopes to eventually expand his Selkirk operation, which currently sells flowering plants wholesale.
Although he is moving his business from Delmar, pending the town of Bethlehem’s approval of Keystone Builders plans to build high-end condominiums on the flower shop’s property, he said he and his flowers will remain a part of the community that has embraced his family.
We’ll definitely be closing (pending the sale to Keystone) on Delaware Avenue, but we will remain in business, selling flowers and plants into the future, Verstandig said. `We want to continue because the community has been so supportive and generous over the years. We’ve enjoyed our relationships on Delaware Avenue and have made many friends.
`We’re not giving up,` Verstandig concluded. `We’re not going out of business.`
Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce President Marty DeLaney said the closing of Verstandig’s shop on Delaware Avenue would not go unnoticed.
`Bob Verstandig and the Verstandig family are the epitome of a longtime Bethlehem family with a strong work ethic and belief in service to their customers,` said DeLaney. `Closing this landmark business is a big loss for the community.`
Verstandig still holds onto the deed, but said he is planning to sell the property to Steve Bolduc’s Keystone Builders once Bolduc gets approval from the town. During the Tuesday, Feb. 5, planning board meeting Bolduc proposed to turn the five-acre lot into nine buildings containing 40 condominiums.
`We were fortunate enough to have our local builder, Steve Bolduc, interested in the property. We think he’s developed a really fine proposal, and it will be an asset to the town,` Verstandig said. `We haven’t had a closing yet. We’re allowing him to get approval from the town. We might have as much as six months to make all of the moving arrangements.`
The Verstandig’s Floral Shop has been a fixture in Delmar since 1932 when Robert’s parents Bertha and Alfonse Verstandig started a landscaping business on half of the current property.
`We’ve been located here ever since,` said Verstandig.
Ten years later, in 1942, his mother Bertha Verstandig started the flower business there.
`She literally used an ice box with ice delivered by Bob Westervelt, the old Delmar ice man,` Verstandig said about his mother’s original floral shop.
Alfonse Verstandig came to Delmar in the late 1920s, which was mostly owned by the Bennett family, according to Verstandig, to visit with a `school buddy` who also happened to be a horticulturist.
`He met Mrs. Verstandig here, and the rest is history,` Verstandig said. Bertha Verstandig came to America with her family as German refugees from World War One.
The rest of the current property, which includes five greenhouses, a large two-story farmhouse, and the flower and gift shop, was built in 1958. The original house on the property was built in the early 1900s, according to Verstandig.
Starting `from the time I could work a wheelbarrow,` Verstandig said, he officially became a part of the family business in 1960; the same year he married his wife, Ilse. Verstandig joined the business that year after serving in the United States Navy.
He retired as a captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve after 34 years of service and the Verstandig business was incorporated in 1970.
Fast-forward to today, and Robert and Ilse have continued the family tradition by bringing their own children into the business.
`My two sons joined with me, and they presently run the Selkirk business,` Verstandig said.
In 1997, Verstandig bought `the old Riley Farm` on Creeble Road in Selkirk.
Robert Jr. and Mark Verstandig run the 18 greenhouses at the family’s Selkirk location. Verstandig’s daughter, Lisa Godlewski, is also in the agricultural business, serving as the executive director of the Cooperative Extension in Albany County.
`We produce flowering plants, both annuals and perennials, for wholesale distribution,` Verstandig said about the Selkirk business. `It’s a year-round operation.`
Verstandig said he tried to keep his family’s property on Delaware Avenue a part of the town.
`We made an honest effort to keep it in the community because we felt like the community deserved it,` Verstandig said. `We offered the property to the town a number of times for various reasons all of which didn’t get much response.`
The Verstandigs offered the property to the town for an expanded Town Hall, a new library, for the school district, and even the fire department ` proposals that, for one reason or another, fell through, Verstandig said.
`It was hard to expand to make the Delaware Avenue operation more profitable,` Verstandig said. `The town government, both before and presently, have been very supportive throughout the years but most of my proposals were defeated by public opposition.`
It wasn’t until the parcel was re-zoned that he could finally sell the piece of land he had so many problems expanding and improving upon, said Verstandig.
`The property was zoned residential since the inception of zoning in the town,` said Verstandig. `When the reassessment and zoning took place with the new administration, we got the zoning changed to multiple residential which then gave us the opportunity to sell it for a reasonable price.`
Because of more space in Selkirk, Verstandig said he is looking forward to expanding and going greener than ever.
`Right now were in the pursuit of renewable energy. We’re getting the glitches out, and, when we do expand, it will hopefully be independent in terms of energy consumption,` he said.
Aided by USDA grants, the Verstandigs have installed radiant heat in the Selkirk greenhouses and a water recovery system for all of their greenhouses. The next step, Verstandig said, is investing into solar and wind equipment for electrical production.
As for his employees in Delmar, Verstandig said many would still have jobs when he closes his doors on Delaware Ave.
`We’ve had a number of local residents who have been loyal and hardworking, and we will continue to employ them,` Verstandig said. `We appreciate all of our customers over the years here, and we think the Selkirk plan is going to be a very positive project.“