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Meeting Gary Miller about the opening of his new Laundromat, The Wash Room at 47 Main Street in Le Roy, turned out to be more than just an opening of another business. The opening represents a purpose in the community along with a responsibility for Miller, his customers, and the community.
Wearing many hats, Miller has reinvented himself quite a few times during his lifetime. He has served our country as a Marine and then worked in law enforcement for about 15 years. He currently owns a property management business that reaches many area counties, he is also a real estate salesperson and a business owner. Recently, he also became an author with the release of two books.
“The books were never a symptom of like another economic you know stream of income for me. Rather, it wasn’t about that. It was purging what was in my mind and putting it out there.”
Miller says he started reading a lot while his life was in a transitional time eleven years ago, going through a divorce, changing his career after working in law enforcement, and then realizing he had a knack for building and remodeling homes. The first home he worked on was in Batavia.
“I knew I was handy, and I was always good with construction. I didn’t work a lot of construction jobs, but I was always just naturally inclined that way for some reason. I got into it. I did my first property at 50 Walnut in Batavia. It was a rehab, and I bought it at the same time I bought a two-unit. I worked almost 24 hours a day for a month straight. I rehabbed the entire thing and made about $50,000.”
That’s when Miller made his next move getting into real estate.
The Linear Lie was published in December of 2025.
Description from Amazon:
It is a story about movement—forward, backward, and often in directions we never expect to travel. It is proof that the road to success is rarely straight, clean, or predictable. We like to imagine that progress is a simple line from Point A to Point B, but life teaches us a different truth. The line bends. It twists. At times, it loops so far backward we believe we’ve lost our place entirely. And yet, if we continue, if we persist through confusion, through fatigue, through doubt—it carries us exactly where we’re meant to go.
“What was interesting, the Linear Lie was a title I came up with a decade ago. It was something that had come into my mind because I thought that if I graduated from high school, I went in the Marines, go to college, get married, white picket fence, you were following that straight line, because that’s what they said was the American dream.”
Miller says as his life evolved, the mentality of the straight line did not apply.
“I’m not an optimist. I’m not a pessimist, but I’m a realist and the reality of life is that something will happen at some point, something doesn’t mean it has to be as drastic as the things that I’ve dealt with, like divorce or anything, but something will happen, and you’ll have to respond. There’ll be a fork, and you’ll have to choose the direction.”
Miller’s second published book called, LieID, The Identity Lies that determine long term outcomes talks about taking action.
Link to the book: Amazon.com: LieID: The Identity Lies That Determine Long-Term Outcomes eBook : Miller, Gary: Kindle Store
“Action is what solves all problems, because you don’t think about it, you do it. In real estate investing, or any type of investing, they have a thing called analysis paralysis, its super simple. You think about things, a lot of people think about things, but they think about things because it’s driven from the past and their experiences. Can I do that? But you don’t get a real answer, the answer your getting is shaded by who you were, not who want to become. So, the person you want to become says I’m not going to sit here and analyze this all day, I’m going to start making things happen and take steps to make it happen and then it solves the problem.”
Miller says whatever fork you choose early on to follow can lead to ripples. He says the ripples are what matter; they can be so far out that you don’t see it now in the present, but much later in the future.
“I don’t have the luxury not to follow through with the things I say. So, I’ve been consistent with that, and so when the words meet your actions, that that is something that will help you significantly in life, right? Because people talk about writing books, and everyone’s got a story. That’s a fact. But people talk about writing the books, but they just never do it. And it wasn’t meant for an income stream. It’s just meant to say, this is my story. Would it be helpful to other people? And I’ve got to get it out of my mind.”
Miller’s venture into making use of unused properties in small towns started in the Village of Bergen, creating a hair salon/laundromat in a building that was vacant for 50 years. As a student at SUNY Brockport, he had driven past the property quite a few times. (ripple) The Wash Room in Bergen opened last year.
“So, when I got into real estate, all of a sudden, I had driven by those numerous times. It was never even something that stuck out. And then when I saw it, of course they have Gregory’s. The village is very nice, but they have some vacancies because if we put everything back on shopping, we know that’s a zero sum. You can’t have the shopping. You want to say let’s get people down on Main Street in Le Roy or Bergen and get people walking around again. Those are the days of the past, especially related to shopping. More people shop online, you see more malls that you never would have thought go out of business, and they’re closing doors because people are not going shopping, so even at a mall which is centralized for the purpose, they’re losing malls left and right. It’s something probably that you know ten years ago we never would have thought.”
The laundromat/hair salon/ barbershop idea is the beginning of another transition in Miller’s life. He says he realized he is not going to be able to keep pace with the many properties he currently has and continue to keep them up to his standards, as rehabbing homes is a physically demanding job.
“This started to become part of a long-term plan because the long-term plan has to include my own functional obsolescence, you know. So, things are not going to be as easy in the future as they are now. Understanding that, when you look at the laundry mats, the lights come on themselves. If there’s a flood, I have flood sensors. If I see two sensors go off, I can click one button on my phone at both locations and kill the water. So, it’s pretty self-sufficient. I can do that anywhere in the planet and be able to control this. I can see it through machines. I can see the cameras. Ultimately, the plan’s being driven by number one, family time first and foremost, but number two, my own inability to be able to do what I’m doing.”
Miller says they needed a laundromat in Bergen. He says services are much bigger than shopping right now.
“So, like a barbershop, people need their hair done. That’s why when you’re putting it together, it’s almost like a quilt, because you say, “Here’s this big space. How much would I use for this? How much would I use for that? So, the front portion of that building is the laundromat, they needed one in the area. Is the laundromat going to make a ton of money? No. It wasn’t the purpose. But the commercial space that you’re having on Main Street, that’s not what’s driving the income. Should it pay its bills? Yeah, I mean, unless it’s a not for profit, but you have to be able to pay the bills. It does. But then you put a beauty salon behind it because they need a beauty salon in the area, and so now they have that, but you’ve taken the space that was inhabited by birds, turned it into something, you know, I mean, it was wide open to the back, to the elements.”
The Wash Room in the Village of Le Roy opened last month at 47 Main Street and is great place to be while doing something you have to do once or twice per week. The Wash Room is open from 5:30PM-10:00PM
“The existing services offered in the community are not sufficient or sustainable due to deterioration of the existing equipment being aged with some functional obsolescence, and the actual location of those is not convenient for most residents in the area,” says Miller.
“When you come and do your laundry, everything is very industrial. You have tile floors, concrete under those. You have the whole environment is geared around one function, which is doing laundry, and that’s proper. That’s the way it should be. But the way I create my environments is that between the two laundromats is different because functionally I want it to be industrial in ways that are for upkeep. I want that space to be able to take on the wear and tear that inevitably is going to come. But aside from that, when you create these other spaces and you design and decorate and do the things that have been done in there, you check both boxes, and the other box is simple. If I were doing laundry, and I’m blessed to be able to do it at home, if I were doing laundry somewhere, what would I want that to look like? And that’s why I create that environment.”
“It’s a commonality amongst people. When there’s something nice, they feel a kinship to take care of it, and they appreciate it and value it. So, if someone else is going to have to do their laundry outside of their home, I want them to come home and feel like, for this yes, this thing that we must do, but at the same time while they’re doing it, to feel comfortable, says owner Gary Miller.
Since opening in July, the feedback has been mostly positive. Customers can access the status of their wash by using an App on their phone.
“Once people identify and once people are able to utilize the technology that’s available, which is to say, you know, getting the app for the program, and so there’s been a little bit of pushback with that, but once people get used to it, I found is that they really like it through the app. People are able to see all sorts of things. So, people would be able to see if a machine is currently being used. People would be able to see if the machine has ten minutes left and be able to maybe even pop into McDonald’s for coffee, which would be my preference, and then come back, and when the laundry’s done.”
The App can also offer users promotions.
“With this, I’m able to do community promotions, promotions for residents of GVM properties, and also ongoing promotions where people actually get points for every washer dry they do, leading to a discount on their laundry”.
The Play Area at the Wash Room includes Le Roy’s famous steam shovel. Miller says Le Roy is filled with history.
“Le Roy is more rich in history than any of the surrounding areas in Genesee County. Jello, of course, it goes without saying, is world renowned. The first women’s college, that’s quite substantial, and then we have the only operational steam shovel in the world. I’m not sure what that gets us with the building, but the point is, is that history is important, which is why they teach it in school. But when you look at Le Roy, we have history coming out of everywhere.”
GVM Properties is located a few doors from the Wash Room with a barbershop in between. Miller’s property management business has been in Le Roy about 8 years. Miller currently owns about 40 buildings in the Le Roy area. They are a mix of commercial and residential properties He grew up in Chautauqua Lake and went to Chautauqua H.S.
Miller says his properties are well maintained and designed to support everyday life. He believes consistency, safety, and care are not upgrades; they’re the baseline. He says strong homes create stable communities. That’s where everything starts.
“When I first started talking about real estate to guys that I worked with in law enforcement. All I can explain it as is a boomerang, and you throw it out. But this boomerang is different because you lose sight of it. You don’t see it, but the words were said, the things you’re doing are in furtherance of getting that boomerang to come back and following through with all those words and all the actions, and everybody leaves. They all leave. You say, Gary, it’s never coming back. You know that. But if you just wait for it and you keep going, moving step by step down that road, it will come back. It’s not about the people still being there with you; it’s about your own responsibility to yourself. And that’s one of the coolest things.”
While Miller is thinning the herd on his hundreds of properties in Genesee, Orleans Monroe and Wyoming Counties, a podcast is also in the works. Last year, Miller started setting up an office space with equipment, however he is currently too busy to do a podcast consistently.
“I got everything prepped. I have the Apple, the podcast, all of that, that’s where I’m gearing towards.”
Miller’s 2026 New Year’s message and focus this past January rings true eight months later.
“Believing in thoughtful growth, decisions made with tomorrow in mind, and always keeping in mind that our residents are our primary focus. Here’s to a year built on clarity, patience, and purpose.”