| Five years ago, Grant Lorick and his business partner David Withers never would have dreamed of moving their flower shop to Columbia's Main Street. Next door to Something Special, owners recently finished sprucing up the outside of the building with new windows and awnings and are getting close to signing a lease with a new tenant, said Frank Cason, a commercial real estate agent with Colliers International, who is working on the deal. He said he has had interest from a multitude of retailers, restaurants and office tenants. "Since we opened, the foot traffic has just been nonstop," Lorick said. Lorick was skeptical at first. But the first floor and basement combined would give them 3,500 square feet, including storage - a luxury Lorick never had. It has given them a central location, which has opened up delivery routes in Northeast Richland and meant quicker trips to supply to hospital rooms and set up for downtown events. And the location - in the midst of Columbia's bustling business district - has set them up to make use of an emerging post-recession comeback in corporate party planning. Prioreschi, who sold the building to the florists, said it brings, well, something special to the corridor. Andrews Road, catering weddings and other events, in addition to delivering floral arrangements to hospitals and homes. They had been looking for a couple of years for a building to buy that would give them more space than the 1,400 square feet with no storage that they were working in. One Saturday last year, the two were driving down Main Street after setting up arrangements at a wedding at the Marriott when they saw a for sale sign on the building near the corner of Main and Taylor streets. "One piece at a time, it gets better and better and better," said developer Tom Prioreschi, who has built most of the condos and apartments on Main Street. "Your eyes start opening up to the possibilities," he said. I didn't know what to expect. Today, the owners of Something Special Florist have been open about three weeks and are preparing for next week's grand opening celebration of their new, ornately decorated space on Main Street between Hampton and Taylor streets. He predicted that in two years, the street will look dramatically different and in five years, "you won't even recognize it. " Lorick said he feels lucky to have gotten in on the beginning of the revitalization. For 14 years, Lorick and Withers have run the shop on St. |
Friday 1 June 2012
Something Special on Main
