By Jill NAgy
\nCurtis Lumber is building a new store in Schodack and recently purchased two stores formerly operated by Bellevue Builders Supply, one near Binghamton and the other in the Cobleskill area.
\nThe new Schodack store will be close to an existing store, but nearer Columbia Turnpike and more visible from Route 20, according Rich Keating, vice president for sales and marketing.
\nThe existing store was built in 1971. The new one will contain 25,550 square feet of sales space, some 7,500 square feet larger than the present outlet, said Keating. It will include more showroom space for kitchens, lighting equipment, and windows. The former store will be re-purposed for warehouse use.
\nMunter Enterprises in Middle Grove is the general contractor. Cotler Architects of Latham designed the new building. If all goes well, the new store will be open for business in early 2021.
\nKeating expects about 30 employees to staff the new Schodack store. Overall, Curtis Lumber employs 650 people in its various locations. Annual sales are about $215 million, he estimated. About 65 percent of their customers are contractors.
\nCategorized as an \u201cessential business,\u201d Curtis has stayed open throughout the pandemic. Business was slow during the lockdown period but the company did not furlough or lay off anyone, said Keating. That decision is paying off now with the company going \u201cflat out,\u201d as contractors and do-it-yourselfers try to make up for lost time, he said.
\nMany of their contractor customers had to furlough employees, Keating said. \u201cNow, we are hearing that they have a year\u2019s worth of work. It\u2019s just a matter of how much they can get done in the balance of the year. Their building season has been abbreviated.\u201d
\nKeating speculated that now that the vacations have been cancelled, many people are using the vacation money for home projects.
\n\u201cThey\u2019re home all day and they see the projects that they needed to do. It\u2019s been very, very busy,\u201d he said. Particularly, \u201cdecks are off the charts right now.\u201d
\nAfter 130 years in the lumber and building supplies business, Curtis Lumber is busier than ever and still growing. Jay Curtis, the current president, is the fifth generation to head the company and his son and daughter are the sixth generation to work there.
\nThe company has 22 locations, two in Vermont and the rest in New York state, in locations from the Catskills to the Canadian border.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Jill NAgy Curtis Lumber is building a new store in Schodack and recently purchased two stores formerly operated by Bellevue Builders Supply, one near Binghamton and the other in the Cobleskill area. The new Schodack store will be close to an existing store, but nearer Columbia Turnpike and more visible from Route 20, according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n