Hokey, kitschy and hopelessly sentimental, Quechee Gorge Village may be the closest thing the Upper Valley has to Disneyland, and its longtime impresario, Gary Neil, is the nearest showman that Upper Valley has to Roy Disney.
Neil, a retail maven who has combined a similar penchant for clean, all-American amusement with the savvy (or cutthroat, depending on your view) real estate instincts of Disney, built the Route 4 roadside collection of Vermont-themed stores, Segway tours, an antique mall, a toy museum and an alpaca zoo into a tourist trap that ensnares tens of thousands of visitors a year.
That’s a lot of ice cream, blocks of Cabot cheese and bottles of maple syrup.
Then there’s Quechee Gorge Village’s star attractions: the Jet Star roller coaster, the antique carousel and miniature train ride. This summer just saw the sixth annual “Milk Bottle Show,” and the Sunday flea market under the tent has been a summer staple.
“It’s been a constant reinvention,” Neil said of keeping the show going.
But embarrassingly for this page — which likes to think it has a handle on the major business events in the Upper Valley — I am just catching up with the news that Neil and his wife and business partner, Robin Neil, last year sold Quechee Gorge Village to Rick Bove, the Burlington real estate investor and property manager, whose family owns the Vermont-famous Bove’s pasta sauce empire.
The sale price: $5.1 million, according to Hartford property transfer records.
The Neils acquired the 19.5-acre property — which encompasses eight stores in addition to Public House Diner, Vermont Spirits Distilling Co., toy museum and 450-booth antique mall and currently is assessed at $2.3 million — in 1988 for $1.5 million.
“One of the reasons I sold to (Bove) is because he has the capacity and grounding to run the property,” Neil told me.
I left messages for Bove but didn’t hear back.
The Neils are not exiting the stage, however. Gary Neil said he will continue to run his passion, the Vermont Toy Museum, with its collection of 100,000 vintage and antique toys that Neil has amassed over the past 30-plus years — check out the collection of Pez dispensers — and run the ice cream parlor and Segway tours. Robin Neil opened her own toy store a couple years ago, which she will continue to operate.
Yes, Quechee Gorge Village is as filled with ersatz Vermont nostalgia as an Ephraim Tutt novel, but Neil hit upon — and more importantly has known how to market — an anti-digital throwback to what visitors think life must have been (but never was) like in a small New England town.
And like Disney, he’s profited handsomely from it.
The roll call of Lebanon, Hanover and Hartford businesses that have closed or been sold over the past couple of years as their longtime wife-and-husband owners have retired is a long and distinguished one: Phyllis and William Shambo of Kibby Equipment, Judy and Keith Stern of Stern’s Quality Produce, Jude and Bill Gilbert of KindleNook, Mary and Marv Schouten of Main Street Kitchens, and Patty and Marc Milowsky of restaurants Molly’s and Jesse’s Steakhouse.
Now add Joanne and Bob Moulton of Muffler House in Lebanon.
The Moultons have operated the auto repair and inspection business located on Hanover Street in Lebanon for 39 years (31 years at their current location behind Lebanon High School, eight years in West Lebanon where Rymes Propane is now located) and their last day in business will be Oct. 30.
Bob Moulton, who graduated from LHS in 1972, said he’s making “the great leap into retirement,” citing health reasons.
Until then, Muffler House is open every weekday until 2 p.m. — where if you’re lucky you’ll be excitedly greeted by their Pomeranians Ruby and Squeak running around the lobby with their chewies — and selling his shop’s equipment and specialty tools for auto repairs, including an 18,000-pound lift.
Just about all the equipment (need a pipe bender or tire balancer?) is for sale — just ask him the price — except one item, at least until everything else is gone first.
“I’m saving the ladder for last in case I have to take the lift down,” Moulton said.
Maria Kritikos — that’s Coach Maria to you — has taken over ownership of the martial arts studio Baan Muay Thai Academy in Lebanon (located below the former Lebanon Village Market) from Marc Klemm. Lebanon High School alumna Kritikos, the daughter of Village Pizza owners Steve and Louiza Kritikos, is a champion Muay Thai fighter and training coach with an undefeated 10-0 record.
Abigail Zsenai, who operates Abigail Zsenai Skincare in Woodstock, will open a second location in Hanover in November in BaySon Co.’s 35 S. Main St. building. Zsenai, who opened her Woodstock skin care salon in 2014, explains: “A lot of my clients live over the river, so it makes a lot of sense to have a second location right in their backyard and tap into that market.”
Les Rice has moved his thrift shop, which he has operated in Croydon for the past four years, to space in the former Hirsch’s clothing store on Hanover Street in Lebanon. Rice has a business cleaning out vacated apartments and homes and he said “90% of the stuff I have here” comes from items that people leave behind. The store’s name? “ ‘Thrift Shop.’ I just call it ‘Thrift Shop,’ ” he said.
John Lippman can be reached at jlippman@vnews.com.
