Gentrification and zoning changes could drive the only remaining wholesale flower market in Washington, D.C., out of the city.

Dennis Paul, owner of Paul's Wholesale Florist Co., Inc., and co-owner of the Washington Flower Center; and Francis Abdow, owner of McCallum Sauber Wholesale Florist, Inc., recently announced the property was up for sale.

"This was a very sad decision," Paul says, made due to the recent rezoning of the neighborhood from industrial manufacturing to mixed commercial and residential. Although the Washington Flower Center is grandfathered in, Paul says it won't fit in with the changing neighborhood.

"We estimate that by 2012, 1,300 residential units will be in this area," Paul says. "We'll end up being a nuisance. Sometimes we open up between 2 and 3 a.m."

Paul says Washington Flower Center's first choice is to remain in the city, but gentrification in other areas remains a concern, so it may opt for nearby Maryland, where a number of other wholesale floral businesses already call home.

David Hope, AAF, AIFD, of the Flower Gallery in D.C. says he's a frequent customer of the nearby Washington Flower Center, which he drives past at least once a day.

"I'll cry huge tears" if they move out of the city, Hope says. "It'll change our life. It would really alter our buying habits."

Hope says if a customer needs something they don't have, they can just run over to the flower market and get it. If it moves out to a suburb, he'll only visit on special occasions.

"Right now, we never do without," Hope says.

New York City wholesalers are facing a similar challenge as a lack of parking, traffic congestion and increasing rental costs had the Flower Market Association of New York City looking for a new location for the New York flower district in 2002, something it hasn't found yet.

Gary Page, of G. Page Wholesale Flowers  in Manhattan, says the wholesale market in the city is slowly disappearing due to rezoning and rising rent costs.

"The wholesale market is under a lot of pressure," Page says. "It's all about the money eventually."

Page estimates that there about 26 wholesalers in New York City — a number that goes down by one or two every year as the city continues to change.

Despite these situations, there are plenty of thriving wholesale markets in cities across the country, says Jim Wanko, executive vice president of Wholesale Florist & Florist Supplier Association including Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis.

Wanko explains there are still many retail florists, along with a number of other event florists "in the cities and they want their suppliers in the cities."

--Kori Kamradt
kkamradt@safnow.org

 

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