Mayo Auto Service owner Pete Soviero outside his Monmouth Street shop in 2022. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Pete Soviero was fresh out of Red Bank Regional High school when his parents co-signed a $15,000 loan to help him buy adjustable wrenches, ratchets and other tools to start his own auto repair shop in his hometown of Little Silver.
That was 48 years ago. Starting Wednesday, Soviero will begin selling, via online auction, thousands of dollars worth of tools, some pretty high-tech, as he winds down the shop that grew to become Mayo Auto Service at 165 Monmouth Street in Red Bank.
The shop’s equipment goes up for sale Wednesday. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
As reported two years ago by redbankgreen, Soviero sold the property, which he acquired in 2004, to Denholtz Properties.
The site abuts the Red Bank train station, and the $2.2 million purchase gave Denholtz a key piece in its plans to redevelop the station and nearby properties under push for a possible “transit village” designation now under review by the borough.
Since then, Soviero has continued operating Mayo under a leaseback of the property that expires next month. And on March 29, he locked the bay doors one last time.
An online-only auction of tools and equipment, conducted by Peter Costanzo Auctioneers in Neptune, begins Wednesday, and continues until May 1. On sale are compressors, vehicle lifts, diagnostic equipment and more – “everything down to the walls,” Soviero said.
Now 66 years old, Soviero has been spending his days winding down the operation and saying goodbye to customers, some of whom he’s known since his business began at Branch Avenue and Silverside Avenue in 1976. One sent over a catered lunch; others have dropped off gifts of wine and liquor. Several, he said, have compared his retirement to losing a lifelong physician.
“It has been very emotional,” Soviero told redbankgreen Tuesday. “It’s been my whole life. It’s all I know.”
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