After 90 Years, McGready’s Is Selling Property And Closing Its Doors

After 90 years as a family-owned repair shop, McGready’s Auto Service is preparing to shut its doors while the owners negotiate a sale of the property.

“We’ve been doing this for three generations,” said Bill Puetz, who owns the shop with his brothers Frank and Karl. “Some guys came in and made an offer and it was very good. We’d like to keep doing this forever, but it is that time for us.”

Puetz said the deal isn’t finalized, so he wouldn’t name the buyers or disclose the amount offered for their 10,850-square-foot lot located on Coney Island Avenue, between Avenue U and Avenue T. He said they were first approached about selling the property last summer. The buyers offered them a contract guaranteeing the sale, said Puetz, but the deed won’t be turned over for another few months.

The owners of McGready’s sent out a letter last month informing customers the business will discontinue operations on May 1 and close for good at the beginning of July.

The letter thanks the community for their continued support while describing how the business was founded in 1929 by Puetz’s grandfather, also named Bill, and named after their grandmother Agnes McGready. The shop was originally located on Quentin Road and moved to its current spot two decades later.

“At the hear of it all, we have been able to provide honest professional automotive services to the Sheepshead Bay and Gravesend communities and ‘put food on the table’ for over 90 years and we did it as a family,” the letter reads.

Puetz said he had “mixed feelings” about closing shop.

“We put out heart and soul into this business,” he explained. “And our customers have become more than just customer. They are our friends.”