[SFDXA] Skycraft Parts & Surplus is selling their Winter Park building and moving to a bigger store

[Bill]

  Skycraft Parts & Surplus is selling their Winter Park building and
  moving to a bigger store


        Posted By Monivette Cordeiro
        <https://www.orlandoweekly.com/author/monivette-cordeiro> on
        Tue, Apr 30, 2019 at 1:57 PM

Skycraft Parts & Surplus <https://skycraftsurplus.com/>, the iconic 
store that has long livened up Winter Park's skyline with rockets and a 
flying saucer, is selling its building on Fairbanks Avenue and moving to 
a bigger location nearby.

Allen Fiedler, president of Skycraft, says it could take a couple of 
years to sell the spot at??2245 W. Fairbanks Ave. and then move the 
store's inventory of electronic parts,??electrical supplies, hardware, 
wires and specialty items to their existing warehouse. The 
6,198-square-foot building was listed for sale earlier this month 
starting at $5.5 million 
<https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/2245-W-Fairbanks-Ave-Winter-Park-FL/15744275/> 
by the??Cushman & Wakefield real estate company.

"We're not closing ??? we're just moving,"??Fiedler says.

The new store would still be in Winter Park ??? less than a mile away at 
700 Harold Ave., just??behind the 4 Rivers Smokehouse. Skycraft would 
have about 17,000 square feet to work with in their future location.

"We're hoping to do bigger and better things,"??Fiedler says. "It's a 
much larger facility. Skycraft was only 6,000 square feet, so this will 
allow us to sell a lot of things that people don't usually see because 
they're in the warehouse. Now we can offer it to them on sight. It'll 
probably look a lot more interesting, too."

One part of Skycraft might not be making the move, though. The flying 
saucer was built by Fiedler's father, Bob Fiedler 
<http://www.orlandomagazine.com/Orlando-Magazine/October-2014/Another-World/>, 
several years after he and his wife, Dorothy, opened the store in 1974. 
It would not be allowed under the city's current ordinances at the new 
store,??Fiedler says.

"I'm not sure my flying saucer is going to make the move," he says. 
"It's grandfathered in. You could never do that again today. It's very 
unfortunate. It's probably going to go to the sign place 
<https://www.americansignmuseum.org/> in??Cincinnati. Everything else is 
going to move, though ??? we'll still have the same employees, just 
hopefully a better and improved look."

Aside from the current store's size limitations,??Fiedler says he was 
also motivated to sell the Skycraft building because construction on the 
I-4 Ultimate Project <https://i4ultimate.com/> was hurting business, 
especially after the Fairbanks Avenue ramp closed.??Fiedler has also 
heard other business owners along Fairbanks complain of a similar foot 
traffic slowdown.

"I can't take two more years of I-4,"??he says. "It's reduced traffic in 
the store by 35 percent. We used to have over 500 customers a day in the 
store. Now, we're in the 275-300 range. I-4 construction is killing us."

The move won't happen until the building is sold, though, so Skycraft 
will stay in its current spot for at least some time.

"It'll be so nice to be under one roof and have everything in one 
building," Fiedler says. "It saves us a lot of problems, especially with 
transportation issues on big items. And again, we're moving, not closing."