Hartsdale garage to relocate soon

Long-standing Hartsdale Automotive lost its lease; here’s where the business is headed next.

BY DEBORAH SKOLNIK

Hartsdale Automotive Services, located across from the Hartsdale train station, has long been the ultimate in convenience for commuters. After 38 years, however, the business is being forced out of its prime perch, said franchise holder Christine Romani and Shop Manager Thomas Caggiano. By fall, it’s anticipated the bustling garage will move to the edge of Scarsdale Village.

“We lost our lease because of Covid,” Caggiano said. “That’s what it boiled down to. We got behind in the rent during Covid, such as most people did.” The landlord, Chestnut Petroleum Distributors Inc. (CPD), never complained about the garage’s delinquency, Romani added. “And then last year they came back to us with a ridiculous repayment plan of ten thousand dollars a month on top of our rent,” she said. The sum, which would raise the monthly payments by roughly 50 percent, was more than the franchise could handle.

Hartsdale Automotive, Inc., has long been a fixture across from the Metro North railroad station.

“It’s just business”

Romani, who was the first woman to own a Mobil franchise, said CPD had promised them right of first refusal if the property ever came up for sale. “They said outright, ‘We’ll never let anybody else get this location,’” she shared. “So this was their opportunity. And ‘It’s just business’ was their quote. They also said I’ve had a long run. I was just silent. I had to bite my tongue.

I mean, if they had come to me right after Covid and said I had to do a thousand dollars more a week, we could have made up [the debt],” Romani said. “But no, they waited and came back with that number.” Caggiano emphasized that fact: “They came back three years later,” he said. CPD could not immediately be reached for comment.

“We had customers from when we first opened, and now it’s their children who come to us,” Romani (with Caggiano) shared.

Next stop: Scarsdale

Although the news was upsetting—”Neither one of us slept for at least a few weeks,” Caggiano said—there’s a small silver undercarriage to the story: The garage quickly found somewhere to relocate this fall. In late September, it will take over the space formerly occupied by Yuki’s Pit In, at 20 Grayrock Road in Scarsdale Village. “It’s a stroke of luck that we happened to meet somebody that is an investor and was willing to purchase the property and lease it back to us,” Romani said.

Hartsdale Automotive’s new HQ still will be well within reach of commuters. “There’s a path right alongside the railroad tracks. If people don’t want to walk down Garth Road, they can jump on the path and walk,” Caggiano explained. He and Romani hope their customers will follow them, and judging by their outstanding work and longtime relationships with many clients, there’s little doubt that’s exactly what will happen.

Hartsdale Automotive, Inc., 914-723-3343