A secret oasis in the middle of Brooklyn

If you wanted to invent the figure of a hipster who operates a garden centre in Brooklyn, then you would probably imagine him something like Joe Franquinho - even if the wiry young man with full dark beard doesn't see himself that way. The fact is: he operates a garden centre in the middle of Brooklyn and with his ideas, he has become something of a star in the green scene on the other and this side of the Atlantic. For example, Koelnmesse invited him to speak at Spoga+Gafa about the topic of urban gardening and his green business on the grey and narrow urban streets.
A garden centre in New York? After all, the district of Brooklyn is so big that if it were a city in its own right, it would be the fourth largest in the USA (after the rest of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago). The company, which was founded in 1962 by his Uncle Joe and father Manny, was originally a hardware store. That's how it remained until the start of the new millennium when "we started seeing customers come in with wants, but not necessarily the needs for greenery and plant-life," as Franquinho reports. Even though his father was originally sceptical, his son set up the first small plant and garden section in 2004.
The reactions from his customers proved him right: "More customers showed excitement about the addition of plants and larger variety of plant care products," reports Joe Franquinho. After all, he had prepared himself well for the garden business which was new for him and he had taken classes at Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.
In the year 2012, it was finally decided to invest in a retail greenhouse which could be used throughout the year, and to extend the area of outdoor space from 150 m² to 500 m². At this point, the garden department was now taking up an entire aisle in the original store.
"Nowadays," says Franquinho, "Crest Hardware is known as one of the largest urban gardening stores in all of New York City. And our urban garden department is our largest grossing department in the entire store."
DIY International had the opportunity to meet Joe Franquinho and ask him a few questions.

In our area there are a couple of garden centres nearby and each one has its own vibe and focuses on its own market. I'm the only garden centre/houseplant/hardware store all in one. I guess that makes our store unique. Crest is larger than most of the other…