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Hoping to bloom again in the Flower District

BY FARNOOSH TORABI | SPECIAL TO amNEWYORK

May 8, 2006

Bill Nikolas, owner of Bill's Flower Market, remembers the old days of talking shop with fellow flower district merchants at the local tavern.

"Never look down the block -- concentrate on your own location," he remembers one old-timer telling him when he and his younger brother first took over their grandfather's flower shop in the early 1970s.

Now the 60-year-old Nikolas is himself one of the Flower District's old-timers. He still wakes up each morning at 4 a.m. to begin his 15-hour workday. The flower shop still occupies the same corner it has for the past 65 years on West 28th Street and Sixth Avenue. But not much else is the same.

A dried-up district

Once part of a sprawling single-trade district with more than 100 merchants, Bill's is now one of just 45 flower shops in the area, according to the Flower Market Association. The surrounding taverns and coffee shops are also gone, taking with them a social scene that served as a rich source of customers.

"It's become a volatile market with complex issues," Nikolas said.

Those "issues" include surging traffic and fewer places to park, mostly thanks to a 1995 rezoning law that allowed for residential building on Sixth Avenue from 24th to 31st Street. The commercial enclave has since been losing ground to luxury, high-rise apartments that boost local rents and price out a number of flower shops.

Nikolas says that in five years, he doubts the neighborhood will even be known as the Flower District.

Branching out
Bill's Flower Market has endured in part because the Nikolas family owns its commercial space. But the store has also managed to evolve to suit the marketplace.

For years, it sold only flowers and plants. Recently, it has added a range of products to its inventory, like artificial birds, feathers, decorative stones and glass vases. Martha Stewart, whose TV show tapes in a nearby studio, has become a frequent customer.

Still, Bill's is far from its glory days, with sales down "dramatically" compared to 20, even 30 years ago, Nikolas said.

While the disappearance of scores of local flower shops reduces competition, said Nikolas, it also diminishes the appeal of a historic area. Hot-orange scaffolding and blue plywood fencing now adorn streets once paved with fresh-cut red roses and bold, yellow sunflowers.

Keeping Bill's Flower Market open has become less about making a lucrative living and more about carrying on a legacy, Nikolas said.

"You have an allegiance to the business when it goes back three, four generations," he said. "You feel attached to it."

A budding future?
Michael Nikolas, Bill's son, often wonders whether his father is too attached to the past to make any dramatic changes -- moves he believes could reap future profits.

"We're not going to survive the way we are now," Michael said.

Instead, Michael, 31, proposes building the business around exotic flowers and plants, expensive price tags and bulk sales. It's a model fit for the evolving neighborhood, where incoming residents have deeper pockets. "There's always people willing to pay those prices," Michael said.

But until the torch is tossed, he is practicing patience.

"Right now," Michael said, "it's [my father's] show."

Tim Chan of NY1 News contributed to this story.

Farnoosh Torabi is the business producer at NY1 News. If you know an interesting small business, please e-mail Torabi at amSmallBusiness[at]gmail.com.