Brinkmann's Hardware plans move to site of closing Ging's Nursery
Brinkmann's Hardware plans to relocate its Miller Place store to this property on Route 25A currently occupied by Ging’s Nursery. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
A Long Island hardware chain is moving to take over a longtime plant nursery site in Miller Place as part of its multimillion-dollar expansion plans.
Brinkmann Hardware Corp., which has five stores on Long Island, plans to relocate its Miller Place store to a larger building it would construct on the site of Ging’s Nursery at 334 New York State Route 25A.
The nursery “as we currently know it will close,” town spokesman Jack Krieger said.
The planned relocation of the Brinkmann’s Hardware store in Miller Place is being spurred by space needs, said Hank Brinkmann, who co-owns the family business with his two siblings.
“Our customers were looking for products that we’re unable to carry. We just didn’t have room to carry, so we needed more room to fulfill our customers’ needs,” he said.
Ging’s Nursery leases the 3-acre property, which is owned by Loni Corp., an affiliate of Aliano Real Estate in Miller Place, Hank Brinkmann said.
Brinkmann Hardware Corp. is under contract to buy the property, but the deal is contingent upon the project receiving building approvals from the town of Brookhaven, according to Brinkmann.
Neither Ging’s Nursery nor Aliano Real Estate responded to Newsday’s requests for comment.
It is unclear how old the nursery business is. But it dates back to at least 1974, based on a classified ad for the business published that year in Newsday.
Founded in 1976 by the Brinkmann siblings’ parents, Tony and Pat Brinkmann, the hardware business is headquartered in Sayville and is part of the True Value buying group.
Brinkmann Hardware Corp. owns four Brinkmann’s Hardware stores — in Blue Point, Holbrook, Miller Place and Sayville — and a stand-alone Brinkmann's Paint in Jamesport that sells Benjamin Moore paint. The Brinkmanns' business employs about 100 people, Hank Brinkmann said.
In the Miller Place project, with a pricetag estimated at $11 million for construction and the property purchase, the Brinkmanns plan to relocate their store from the 10,000-square-foot building they own at 900 New York State Route 25A to a new building that would be more than three times as large. The current hardware store and the site of the planned store are about a mile apart.
Under the name Miller Place 334 LLC, the Brinkmanns submitted an application to the town of Brookhaven on April 18 that calls for the removal of existing structures on the site and the construction of a 30,390-square-foot retail building with a garden center, according to Krieger.
“The applicant is requesting a modification of a restrictive covenant adopted by the town board on August 28, 2014, which limits the allowable building square footage to not more than 18,000 square feet,” Krieger said.
The town board will consider the application for modification of a restrictive covenant at a public hearing, which has not been scheduled yet because the application is still in the preliminary stages of review, he said.
If the town board accepts the application, Miller Place 334 will be required to submit a site plan to the town planning board for approval, Krieger said.
No official start date for construction has been established, Hank Brinkmann said.
“That’s going to be up to the town of Brookhaven. But as soon as we get approvals, we’ll move forward,” he said.
In addition to the Miller Place project, Brinkmann Hardware Corp. is planning several other new stores, including one that will open in a former King Kullen supermarket space in Glen Cove in the first quarter of 2023.
The hardware chain also plans to open a store next year in Hauppauge in part of a former Staples office supply store space. That project has been delayed since 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hank Brinkmann said.
Also, the business wants to relocate its paint store in Jamesport to Mattituck, where it would construct a 12,000-square-foot hardware store and an 8,000-square-foot paint store in a currently wooded area at 12500 Main Rd. But that plan has been delayed due to a legal fight with the Town of Southold that began in 2019.
Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.
