Building on its reputation as one of the best-kept secrets of 47th Street, A&C Gem Trading Corp. recently moved and expanded its wholesale colored stone showroom, making it the ultimate space for dreaming, collaborating, and creating for students, designers, retailers, and manufacturers.
The old-school colored stone house has been located at the street level in the Diamond District since 1976, but it was time to add some space for everyone, says Heather Sandor, who co-owns A&C with her husband, Ron Sandor. It opened its new showroom in mid-June at 54 W. 47th St. as part of the Ross Metals Building.
“I am super-excited about what we are doing and our clients have been thrilled to come in and work in our dedicated designer workspace,” Heather Sandor says.
But some things won’t change—like how Heather and Ron still share a partners desk, working inches apart. But having this larger showroom is a vast improvement over its location inside the International Gem Tower, where A&C had only 111 square feet.
Being able to operate a business successfully in such a small space is a testament to how well everyone who works with and at A&C get along and also how slowly the company has grown over the past five decades, Heather says.
“We started with one little showcase of gems and have built it up over the years,” she says. “That’s in part because of the people who work here, some who have been here for decades. We have an incredible staff of wonderful ladies who are truly amazing. They’re treasures.”
Having Ross Metals and A&C as neighbors also creates the first and only completely wholesale exchange in the Diamond District serving the jewelry industry, she adds. The A&C showroom will serve as a hub for jewelry makers and designers, allowing for greater creativity and collaboration. Ross Metals offers complementary materials, including gold, silver, and platinum as well as gold-filled wire, plate, chains, and findings.
The A&C showroom, which features both precious and semiprecious gemstones, is set up to feel like an interior-design showroom, Sandor says. A jewelry designer can sit down, ask to see gemstones in every color, size, shape, or budget. A&C stocks more than 5,000 colored gemstones, many with GIA reports on them. Their stone inventory ranges from 1 mm to 30-plus carat sizes. The showroom also allows designers to work quietly in private, dedicated workspaces.
“We created a design desk so they can come inside the booth behind the showcases. They can sit and we have all of the tools, trays, calipers, and tweezers—all of the necessary things to work on layouts,” Heather says. “We encourage people to come in, sit down, and work on their designs so we can maximize their budget and give them the most beautiful stones possible within their price point.”
Both A&C as well as Ross Metals are family businesses. Ross Metals was founded in 1982 by Angel Ross, who continues to run the business with his son, Ian. A&C stands for Agnes and Claudette—Agnes is Sandor’s late mother-in-law and Claudette was Agnes’ sister-in-law.
Ron Sandor joined the business when his father died 10 months after joining Agnes in the business in 1985. Heather Sandor started full time with Ron and Agnes in 1991.
“Ross Metals is one window and we’re the other window if you are looking at the building from the front. Somebody who comes in could literally stand in the aisle and touch my stone showcase and walk two steps and touch his showcases,” Heather says.
Top: A&C Gem Trading Corp. is enjoying a larger showroom and design area at its new 47th Street location in New York (photos courtesy of A&C Gem Trading Corp.).
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