Courtesy Bruce Volpe (2021)
Jenny Bernard and Bruce Volpe, with their son Ronan, have purchased 20 Warren St. in Glens Falls. The purchase price, $500,000, is up from $340,000 three years ago.
Bruce Volpe and his fianceé Jenny Bernard have purchased 20 Warren Street and have moved his Goosehead Insurance office there.
Volpe, 37, a U.S. Army combat veteran who served in Afghanistan in the 82nd Airborne Division, formerly had office space in 86 Glen Street.
The couple paid $500,000 for the three-story building. Jen Ball of Hunt Real Estate said she represented both the buyers and the sellers. The purchase price is an indication of where downtown real estate is moving.
It was home of Rich Morin’s Dive Shop before Anson and Brooke Wood bought it in 2018 for $340,000.
They moved Brooke’s acupuncture studio there, and Brooke will continue to operate The Acupuncture Studio at 20 Warren Street until the Woods find another location.
“We love downtown and the history of Glens Falls,” Volpe told FoothillsBusinessDaily.com. “We think it has a lot of potential for growth, and it’s great exposure for my business to be downtown. We’re thrilled to be downtown.”
Volpe said he and Bernard will continue to lease the upper-floor apartments while renovating the exterior of the 5,880-square-foot building.
“We have hired a mason who will start repointing some of the exterior brick and touch up the brick and mortar,” Volpe said. “We’ve reached out to folks from the art district about the possibility of putting a mural on the side of the building….We think it would be a great location for a mural, as people enter Glens Falls to see it.”
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 20 Warren Street has been known as the Conkey Building. City historical information indicates it was built in 1874 and that George W. Conkey, one of the first 19th century Glens Falls photographers, had his home and studio in the building.
Conkey is credited with producing the first photographs (daguerreotypes) in the city. Nationally-known art photographer Seneca Ray Stoddard moved from Wilton to Glens Falls, presumably for an apprenticeship with Conkey, according to the city’s historical information.
Originally from Canton, Ohio, Volpe said he and Jenny Bernard, his future wife, met while he was doing contract work for the Marines in North Carolina.
“Jenny is originally from South Glens Falls, and we moved up here about six years ago,” he said. They have a five-month-old son, Ronan. They live in Lake George.
Volpe owns Valor Financial Team, which provides military veterans with job opportunities in sales and marketing. He started that company in 2018, and opened his insurance agency in September 2019.