Stonington — Bill Geary is a guy who swings for the fences — the Wiffleball fences.

And that explains why Geary is planning to build a $30,000 Wiffleball park off Route 1, but it doesn't quite define his business background or his current position as co-owner of a new coffee and pastry shop called Yellow House Express — the takeout version of a similar enterprise in Stonington Borough run by his wife, Shanna.

Geary, a native of Stonington, had a lucrative career in commercial real estate out in Las Vegas  until the bubble burst about seven years ago. Since then, things have been tough out in the "wild, wild west," as he jokingly calls it, where many real estate tycoons who hit deals out of the park a decade ago are now in jail or worse, Geary said.

Geary, a Stonington resident, still manages to put a few small development deals together in Nevada, flying to Las Vegas every three weeks or so, he said. But with real estate not quite paying the freight these days, it's the 400-square-foot takeout shop he opened last month at the former site of Zuzu's Petals that he's counting on for some extra income.

"I didn't know people drank coffee all day, but they do," the affable Geary, whose wife runs the Yellow House Coffee & Tea Room on Water Street, said during an interview last week.

Geary, never before so directly involved in a retail business, said he plans to compete with the Dunkin Donuts of the world by offering the respected Rhode Island brand Dave's Coffee along with fresh bagels and pastries from local bakeries at competitive prices. Takeout salads and wraps are among the other offerings, along with soft-serve vanilla ice cream with a variety of toppings.

"Ice cream will define us," Geary predicted.

A summertime favorite along the shoreline, ice cream also happens to go really well with Wiffleball, a game similar to baseball that substitutes plastic balls and bats for the more serious equipment found in Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium.

Geary is raising money for the Wiffleball garden, as he calls it, from donations acknowledged on a huge wood-painted American flag at the back of the store. Half of the donations will go to scholarship funds at Stonington High School, he added.

Geary said the idea is to have some Whiffleball tournaments on the property and donate proceeds to local causes. He has helped build similar fields in Las Vegas and the Borough, he added, where the fences in left and right field are a relatively low 4 feet while center field will sport a higher, 12-foot fence.

The Wiffleball area will be about 90 feet long, taking up much of the one-third of an acre in back of the store. The park will include a warning track, hedges and granite-based flagpoles, he said.

"Certainly we want kids to have a presence here," Geary said.

Judging by traffic in and out of the store on a weekday visit, adults already have discovered Yellow House Express, which markets itself as a "grab-and-go" place without any tables for sitting. Popular besides Dave's Coffee, Geary said, are the apple fritters, fresh-baked bagels and Mystic Soup Co. items.

Taxes are included in the price of all items, which makes it that much easier to grab and go, he said. Coffee and Pepsi brand sodas are self-serve, while all but the bakery items can be located in refrigerators available to customers out front.

Among the baked goods on sale are danishes, brownies, coffee rolls, scones, croissants and whoopie pies. Geary said he is working hard to offer prices below the national chain stores.

"I never realized how much people mark things up," he said.

For now, Geary mans the store much of the time, though in the summer he expects to hire some extra hands. Workers at his wife's coffeehouse in the borough spell him at times, he added.

The store is a partnership between the Gearys and the Miller family of Stonington, who encouraged him to open up the Yellow House Express at what they saw as a great location on one of Stonington's most heavily traveled stretches.

One customer, John Babin of Stonington, said he was happy to see another locally owned store spring up in town since he refuses to frequent the larger franchises.

"They don't put into the community," Babin said. "The mom and pop store are what built this country."

Geary looked around the store, pointing to his Yellow House Express T-shirts and talking about other items he may add to his offerings. Behind him, a rendering of the proposed Wiffleball garden could be discerned, and at the front of the store a doormat with a similar logo held sway.

Geary said he has checked at Town Hall and doesn't expect there will be any issues with building the park in the historic Wequetequock section of town.

It's a place where Geary's landlord, Carl Mitchell, remembers his father running a gasoline station for many years. In more recent years, it also had been the site of Cove Ledge Package Store, First Bite Bakery and Equestrian Solutions Unlimited.

"This is a special place," Geary said. "I love Stonington and Pawcatuck as well."

BUSINESS SNAPSHOT

What: Yellow House Express

Where: 862 Stonington Road, Stonington

Who: Bill and Shanna Geary

Established: March 2015

Phone: 702-810-6644

Facebook: facebook.com/Yellowhousecoffee

Hours 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week; longer in the summer