WESTFIELD — Kelly’s Home and Garden, the Westfield Agway store, closed at the end of December but building owner Nabil Hannoush said he’s hopeful about bringing in a new tenant to run the lawn and garden store.
"I've been talking with Agway and with other Agway operators in the area," Hannoush said Tuesday. "It doesn't even have to be Agway. It could be another lawn-and-garden store."
Kelly’s — owned by husband-and-wife Brian and Stacey Kelly — had its last day of business Dec. 26, Hannoush said.
Hannoush listed the 14,000-square-foot building at 81 Springfield Road as available a few weeks ago.
Brian and Stacey Kelly reopened both Kelly’s Home & Garden in Westfield and Palmer Agway, both on Route 20, in February 2017.
The stores, along with a third location in Athol, closed at the end of 2016.
Stacey’s father and Brian’s father-in-law, Francis E. Hartnett of Enfield, Connecticut, was the owner of the Agways in Westfield, Palmer and Athol. In 2016, Hartnet’s creditors ordered auctions at the three locations to settle the company’s debts.
The Kellys closed the Palmer location in January 2019.
Hartnett sold the Westfield real estate to businessman Nabil Hannoush in February 2016 for $1.4 million.
Hannoush owns the strip along busy Route 20 shopping corridor, including the now-under construction 18,000-square-foot Planet Fitness building, at 99 Springfield Road. He calls the development Riverside Place.
One that's done, Hannoush said he'll seek tenants for the existing fitness center space in his other building at the site. That other building is where the Hannoush family’s Shortstop Bar & Grill is located.
Hannoush said the state tells him it’ll be done in April with a plan to improve Route 20 out front, adding a new stop light which will make it easier for motorists to pull out.
Last year, Dave Ratner has sold five of his Dave’s Soda & Pet City locations to a Connecticut Agway dealer, retaining the Agawam location as his lone remaining store.
Dave’s locations in Hadley, Ludlow, Northampton, Ware and Stafford Springs, Connecticut are now Smithland Supply stores. Smithland, an Agway dealer like Ratner, already has five Connecticut Locations and plans for further expansion across New England,