After decades in Berkley, George’s Shoe Repair looking to sell building

BERKLEY — A longtime Berkley business is looking to close up shop after decades of operation.

George’s Shoe Repair, located at 3442 12 Mile Road, was built in this location in 1945 by Goran Georgeff. For over 80 years, the business has remained in the city and in the same family.

After Goran Georgeff died in 1983, the business was passed along to his son, Gordon, who ran the business for the next 30 years. When he passed away, ownership returned to the family matriarch, Theresa.

“My mother hired the shoemaker that’s currently in there, Fernando, and he’s been working in it for the last 15 years or so, and then he’s retiring,” said owner Robert Georgeff. “So now it’s going back to me and my brother, my oldest brother, who are going to sell the building.”

After Theresa Georgeff died in 2015, Robert Georgeff said that he and his brother, Craig, wanted to keep the business going in honor of their family. Now that their shoe repairman is retiring, the family felt this was the time to move on.

“In that long line of shoemakers, there’s none left,” Robert Georgeff said. “Plus, the building just needs to be rehabbed. It’s time for new life.”

Before relocating to its current location at 3442 12 Mile Road, George’s Shoe Repair opened down the street in a rented building.

When their landlord looked to raise their rent, Goran and Theresa decided to build their own store down the street. The building originally was 500 square feet, though it would add another 300 square feet sometime in the 1950s.

“The machinery in there is from the ’20s. It was bought used in 1945. So the shoe repair machinery in there is from the 1920s,” Robert Georgeff said.

Keeping a business running even for five years is a tough challenge. Berkley Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Nate Mack stated that for the shoe repair business to last this long is “pretty unique.”

“It takes a lot to have a business be successful, and for somebody that’s able to do it for decades says a lot about the type of business that they have and the staying power and the connection they’ve been able to make with their customers over time,” he said.

Originally, the plan was to sell the space to someone who would turn it into a fast food Italian establishment, but the prospect backed out. Robert Georgeff plans to list the building in March for sale.

In looking back on his family’s time with the business, Robert Georgeff said there’s been a lot of good and a lot of hardships. He can look back on pictures of his family, his mom and dad in the 1950s running the repair shop, but the business also has been passed down a lot because of deaths, which has been bittersweet.

“Being in the business that long, I guess I’ve relinquished myself to know what has to go on to something else,” he said. “A lot of people want to get the equipment or keep the equipment because it’s so historic, and I hope I’m not just going to be calling the junk man to pull that stuff out of there, because there’s a lot of cool stuff in there. And let’s face it, it’s over 100 years old now, the equipment itself. So, it’d be nice to get that in some type of place that it can be used as historical stuff now. But in my lifetime, I’ve seen that go from just a shoe shop to now historical stuff. So, it’s just kind of wild.”