Room-by-room Cross River business owner Mary Mayland has taken the century-old Armory on the Hudson and worked her aesthetic magic on its bare-bones walls.
A kind of online auction house, ShipAlmostAnything President Michael Bader said the site is the Priceline.com of shipping. It has over 100 shipping service providers, or SSPs on board, paying about $40 a month to bid on people's posted shipping needs.O'Hanlon logged on looking for a good price and the confidence her priceless items would get safely from her Massapequa home to Florida.Last March FedEx announced third quarter revenue was down 15 percent even after picking up market share from DHL.After searching the Internet for three weeks trying to find a reliable and inexpensive method of getting a crib and a changing table to her expecting stepdaughter, she was ready to give up.Built in 1909, the Armory "was in terrible disrepair."Bader said that at any one time there might be 40 auctions going on at ShipAlmostAnything. Asked what the "almost anything" means, Bader said, "Anything legal."Mayland took on the project as a favor to her sister who is an executive at the armory. Describing it as a semi "pro bono project," she estimated the cost between $15,000 and $20,000.Many of Mayland's items hail from estate sales; everything "has been rewired and cleaned."Mayland, the owner of Baxter & Co. Home in Cross River, just renovated the Millrose Room, a 1,000-square-foot room used for cocktail parties and board meetings and will begin work on the Hospitality Room."The city had put millions into fixing it and New York City and any other town has to sell their (venue) spaces to support them," Mayland said. "It becomes a balance of scales, how much you will spend depending on how much you get back. In New York, there are so many (venues)."She expects to open for business Aug. 1.She employs a carpenter.
"Our norm is running a small retail shop," said the former Bergdorf Goodman buyer, of future design projects. "Decorating is not our calling card, but who knows where it goes. We're an open book."
Author: Liyakasa, Kelly
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