ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – As the packing district continues to grow, one business is saying goodbye.
One of Florida’s last citrus packing houses, Emerald Packing Company, is closing its doors. The owners recently sold the property and told News 6 that they felt it was time to move on.
“We had a good time for a long time,” said Emerald Packing Company owner Stuart Arost. “It was time to get rid of the packing house. Business is slow. We went from 240 million boxes in the state to over 3 million roughly right now, and the viability of the business just changed.”
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Arost said the packing house has been in their family since 1972. He said that once his father took it over, the packing house became a family business — and stayed a family business.
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Arost said he worked with his father for 35 years.
“I’m not sure he was happy about it all the time, but I was, you know,” Arost said. “It was a family business, and it stayed a family business even to the last day my boys were working with me, telling me what to do, when to do it, and I was totally comfortable with it because they were more current than me, and that’s the way it kind of played out. It was a nice business. I miss it already. Has it been gone that long? It’s nice to have family around you and go through the good and bad times.”
With the combination of Florida’s declining citrus industry and being located in an area experiencing so much growth, they felt like it was time to sell the property.
“Well, for us, it’s over,” Arost said. “I mean, we sold the building and, you know, we were lucky in the sense that we’re in an area that’s moving in the right direction, as far as, you know, things taking place and building them and all that stuff. With that being said, you know, I’m glad somebody’s got their hands on the property.”
Arost said one thing about change is that it is constant.
“You can’t stop the change,” Arost said. “The city is growing. I don’t care where you go, that’s the one constant right now is change, and change is fine, but history is, too.”
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