Flower shop plans move to Rountree

Last edited 1:22 p.m., Nov. 4, 2019

The recent activity of commercial development in the Rountree neighborhood continues, as a flower shop is set to relocate to the area early next year.

A two-story, Spanish Mission-style building that is being renovated at the intersection of Pickwick Avenue and Cherry Street will soon house two businesses on the first floor. Greens, which is currently located at 1307 E. Montclair St., near the Battlefield Road and Fremont Street intersection, is expected to move to Rountree by early February, said co-owner Jennifer Grace-Duran.

Grace-Duran co-owns Greens, which opened in October 2016, with sister Amy Grace via Juniper Blue LLC. Grace-Duran noted she and her sister grew up in the Rountree area.

“Once you’ve been there for a while, you love it and you don’t necessarily want to leave,” Grace-Duran said, adding she still lives near the neighborhood and that two of their other four-employee staff resides there.

In the 1423 E. Cherry St. building, the full-service floral shop will join Artistree Pottery LLC, co-owned by husband and wife Bo and Rachel Barks. The two businesses will occupy different spaces, with Greens to fill around 1,300 square feet, Grace-Duran said.

“Artistree Pottery will go very nicely with flowers,” she said. “It wasn’t planned but it worked out very well.”

The floral shop will vacate its current space in December, but staff will continue to process orders by phone and the shop’s website as they wait to move to Rountree, Grace-Duran said.

Greens will shrink a bit in the move, as it currently fills 1,700 square feet. However, Grace-Duran said being in Rountree trumped any size concerns.

“The location was more important than the size of the space,” she said. “We wanted to have more walk-in traffic. This is maybe more of a vibrant area.”

In addition, Grace-Duran teaches art at Greenwood Laboratory School, a K-12 facility on the campus of Missouri State University. She said the move would allow her to ride her bike to school, the shop and her house.

Relocation costs will be minimal, she said, as fixtures, coolers and furniture will make the move from the current shop. She declined to disclose infill costs or the three-year lease rate with Pickwick and Cherry LLC.

Ross Construction Group LLC is handling infill work in the building, as well as the one next door at 1427 E. Cherry St. In that building, a brick-and-mortar spot for Skully’s Food Truck and The Royal, a live music and bar venue, are aiming to open early next year.

The second floor of the 1423 E. Cherry St. building is being renovated to provide space for a pair of apartments, said Ross Chaffin of Pickwick and Cherry LLC.

According to past Springfield Business Journal reporting, Grace-Duran previously operated Metropolitan Farmer and Barley, Wheat and Rye in Farmers Park. Those businesses are no longer operational, and Farmers Park won a judgment this year in a lawsuit filed against the restaurant and bar over back rent. The Progress restaurant and its upstairs bar space called Reverie have since taken over those spaces in Farmers Park.