By Fiona Slusarev
A community staple, Southern Lawn — now known as the Southern Outdoor Equipment Superstore — has relocated to its newly constructed site on Southern Blvd. between D Road and E Road in Loxahatchee Groves. Grand opening festivities will be held on Friday, April 3.
Owner and founder Paul Giarrusso has been providing and maintaining power equipment in the western communities and beyond for the last 17 years.
Originally a mechanic in New York, Giarrusso found himself in Florida in 1989 working for a landscaping company. In 2009, he opened the doors on the first iteration of Southern Lawn, and in 2011, the company moved to the previous location they occupied for 15 years.
“I came down here not knowing what a lawnmower looked like. I’m from New York City, and I was just a mechanic. It has evolved into what we have here today. It kept growing and growing,” Giarusso explained.
Part of that growth was adding business partner Eric Garoutte in 2011, who is certified in a variety of mechanical fields and was an integral part of creating the new location.
Current store manager Erik Rodriguez has been a part of the team for six years. Eric Giles was the most recent recruit, bringing his expertise from decades in the business to the firm as sales manager. In 1989, Giarrusso actually first worked for Giles, whose family had been in the landscaping equipment industry since the 1970s.
They aren’t the only employees who have a long history with the company and the western communities. Notably, Julio Najera has been there since day one, starting as a counter person during his teen years, as well as Don Tuley, an area native, who has been a part of Southern since 2010.
Marla Additon, the office administrator, has been a part of the team for five years, while AnneMarie Giarrusso, Paul’s wife, joined the company during the pandemic and has been instrumental ever since. The firm truly lives up to its slogan: “Our roots run deep.” Over the 17 years, the company has never had a layoff.
“I’m proud of the fact that some of them used to say, “Hey, I can drive a golf cart to work when we move this far west!’” Giarrusso said.
Giarrusso, as a resident of Royal Palm Beach, is part of the majority of the total 30 employees who reside in the western communities. Most live within a 10-minute drive from the new superstore. Giles even attended school in the old one-room schoolhouse in Loxahatchee Groves, many decades ago when it was the only elementary school in the western communities.
Giarrusso sees the company as an extension of the community, as it provides services for residents. The store supports local businesses from landscaping to pool companies. Trailers and power tools are available for purchase, or individuals can bring in their own for service. For golf cart-oriented life, it is a one-stop-shop where people can buy, custom design, refurbish and maintain their carts. Even the seasonal equestrian community uses Southern for trailer safety checks before heading home.
“This really is a business that serves the community,” Giarrusso explained.
With the perennial threat of hurricane season and tropical storms, Southern supplies and fixes emergency equipment like generators that do everything when there is no power, from allowing you to use your stove to powering lifesaving health equipment. When a storm is in the forecast, they halt all nonemergency-related jobs and prioritize work on equipment that is necessary in hurricanes.
“At the end of the day, we say this business is all about relationships. We tell everyone the sale process is just the first step in this relationship,” Giarrusso said.
This approach to business is what has kept Southern running for almost two decades and helped them get their new location. Getting approval from the Town of Loxahatchee Groves for their building plans and gathering the correct permitting was no mere feat, but the team didn’t ask for any variances on town codes and included extensive landscaping to ensure that the structure would blend in with the community.
“We passed with flying colors with planning and zoning, and then we had to go before the town council, and they applauded the business [and] our presentation,” Giarrusso recalled. “They didn’t need another strip mall on this property, just a private business willing to make an investment to stay local.”
Giarrusso and the team are extremely proud of the fruit of their efforts over the last three years that created the Southern Outdoor Equipment Superstore. Originally slated to take a year to a year-and-a-half to build, the construction of the 28,000-square-foot warehouse took double that time. The once underused piece of land now houses landscaping power tools from floor to ceiling, rows and rows of ride-on mowers, golf carts in all stages of assembly, and expansive mechanic workshops.
“I’m not known for being a talker,” Giarrusso reflected, “but I’m damn proud of what we built here — what Eric [Garoutte] designed and built here.”
The Southern Outdoor Equipment Superstore is set to host its grand opening on Friday, April 3 from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with raffles, including prizes like a new golf cart and more.
The Southern Outdoor Equipment Superstore is located at 14331 Southern Blvd. For more info., call (561) 753-5296 or visit www.southernoutdoorequipment.com.
