Longtime Chester Jewelry Store Moving Locations After 34 Years

It’s not exactly a diamond in the rough, but the new location is being polished and will be shiny and new for Trezar Fine Jewelry of Chester.

After more than three decades in the same store, Trezar, owned by the married couple of Ken and Rae Pescatore, is moving the family’s jewels a few feet up the road to the standalone building on Route 206 that formerly housed Mengels Homemade Chocolates.

Ken Pescatore opened his first jewelry store, the “Gold Shop,” in Flanders in 1980. Just a year later he moved to the store’s current location inside the Chester Shopping Mall (along the south side where Yophoric and Starbucks are located) where the business has been ever since.

“The last few years have been tough, economically, to stay here,” said Rae Pescatore. “Rent prices are going up and it’s getting harder to stay in the same location.”

When Mengels closed a few years ago, Pescatore, a family friend, eyed the vacant location. He bought it with the thought of selling it off to a different business that would want to come to the area.

That didn’t happen for a number of reasons, Rae Pescatore said, so the family was faced with a decision that would drastically change the business situation.

Why don’t we move in?

The building, constructed in 1950, needed a lot of work, Pescatore said, but it will be well worth the move.

“Customers are excited and complimenting us on making the change,” she said. “The space will be bigger and we’ll have our own parking area. We’re looking forward to it.”

Trezar will stay in its current location through the holiday season, and will then dismantle the entire store and make the move immediately following Christmas. Pescatore hopes the entire move will take two weeks or less, but considering the large apparatus in the building, it could be a slightly taller task.

There will be a moving sale and subsequent grand opening at the new location, Pescatore said, and the business will be available for customers during the moving phase.