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61-Year Brooklyn Garden Center Owner Has Second Thoughts About Closing

 The Kings County Nurseries garden center has been in business at 625 New York Ave. since 1955.
The Kings County Nurseries garden center has been in business at 625 New York Ave. since 1955.
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DNAinfo/Rachel Holliday Smith

BROOKLYN — The thought of $10 million is tempting, but Kings County Nurseries is here to stay — for now, its owner said.

The site of the longtime family-run garden center went on the market recently for $10.5 million, according to a listing from Douglas Elliman spotted by the Q at Parkside blog. But owner Joe Merola told DNAinfo New York he changed his mind about the sale.

“I’ve been doing this for 35 years and I considered selling it and now I don’t think I’m ready to leave. I have too much of a love for the business and the neighborhood,” he said.

In particular, an outpouring of support from customers in East Flatbush and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens convinced him to stay.

“Without the people in the neighborhood and all my customers, we’d have no success,” he said. “So, we’re going to put a few more years in and keep the ball rolling.”

Merola’s father and two uncles bought the garden center’s lots — two parcels at 625 New York Ave. and 447 Fenimore St. — in 1955, he said. The family has been running the business ever since. Merola, now 51, started working there when he was 16 years old.

“I have a lot of emotional time put into that place,” he said.

The property is zoned R-6, according to the Douglas Elliman listing, which would allow an approximately 20,000-square-foot building to be constructed there. The area, on the border of East Flatbush and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, has seen a boom in construction projects lately, many of them multi-unit apartment buildings or condominiums.

Merola said the real estate company will keep the listing online until Dec. 22, per a prearranged agreement, but he has requested it be taken down after that point. Douglas Elliman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the listing.