Panzer Nursery, which specializes in top-quality florist azaleas, has closed after 60 years in business.
“I’m soon to be 68 and after 42 years at it, I decided it was time to retire,” said owner Brad Bloes. Bloes started working at Panzer in 1981 and was a partner in it and in 2010 he bouth the business out from his partner Fred Panzer.
The nursery encompasses two sites, the main location in Beaverton with 28 acres and another site in south Hillsboro with 58 acres. Bloes leased the Beaverton site from Panzer and owned the Hillsboro site. The nursery employed 50 full-time workers but had 30 workers at the time it started winding down business.
The Beaverton site has been sold by Panzer and will be developed. Bloes said he’s currently in negotiations with a developer to develop the south Hillsboro property.
“It was a fun 40 something years and I met a lot of good people in the industry but it’s tough to stay in business here.” Bloes said the nursery survived the Covid-19 Pandemic and had a few good years, but the labor situation and the economics of the business just made it too difficult to continue.