Sandman Glass Celebrates Grand Opening in Scotts Valley

Sandman Glass celebrated their grand opening on Scotts Valley Drive last Friday, and the brother and sister-owned company says they're looking forward to doing business in Scotts Valley.

"It was a great event, it was a good start for us, we had some nice bluegrass [Bean Creek] that made it lively," said Virginia Lorber, who runs the office side of the business she co-owns with her brother, Mark Sandman.

The newly opened full service glass shop sells "everything that has to do with glazing," from residential windows, showers, mirrors and flat glass commercial glass for larger establishments.

"It's a very large scope," said Lorber. 

Fittingly, the family name "Sandman" orginates in Germany and signifies "glassmaker."

"So that must have been our ancestorss profession," said Lorber.

It also may explan why the brother and sister have gravitated towards the trade and been so successful since going into business in 2003.

"My brother Mark worked as a glazier when he was in high school," said Lorber. "Then he became a fireman and worked in San Francisco and other places before he came back and ended up managing Santa Cruz Glass downtown on Pacific," said Lorber.

At the time, Lorber was working on a Masters degree in Psychology and joined her brother at Santa Cruz Glass, working in the office.

"And then we branched off from there," said Lorber.

Lorber and Sandman grew up in Santa Cruz and are excited about the new Scotts Valley location for many reasons.

"We were looking for something with a little more frontage and also the business community is pretty friendly here, its still a tight knit community, and there's a lot of building going on," said Lorber.

The business is very contractor-based, said Lorber, and also does project bids from the planning stages for mult residential or large facilities.

Teresa Olsen, who has been in the glass business for some thirty years, is also working at Sandman Glass, helping to connect Habitat for Humanity with the glass it needs to build houses in the community.

Lorber and Sandman are an example of why sometimes it just works for families to go into business together:

"I have four older brothers, this particular brother and I get a long really, really well... So it works, to have someone as driven and as devoted to the development of your business as you are makes it easy," said Lorber of the strong partnership. 

Sandman Glass is located at 5346 Scotts Valley Drive in Scotts Valley, and is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 a.m.