Three years ago, the West Union Street fire displaced 40 students and forced Jack Neal Floral to leave its location at 12 W. Union St. Beginning Oct. 1, Jack Neal Floral will begin moving back to West Union Street.
The store will be located at 15 W. Union St., the current home of Haffa’s Records. Andrew Lampela, co-owner of Haffa’s Records, said the store will permanently close on Oct. 1.
“We’re in a weird industry for sure as far as technology,” Lampela said. “There have been a lot of little things adding up over the years. It was just time, unfortunately.”
Lampela said he has enjoyed being part of the community and selling records to people.
“I started shopping here when I was a teenager, and it was always just a really cool, awesome space for weirdos,” Lampela said. “I just really hope I contributed to that. It was a lot of fun. We had a really good run, but unfortunately times change.”
Natasha Neal owns Jack Neal Floral with her husband, Davey. She said she is excited to finally return to West Union after wanting to go back since the fire.
The current location of Jack Neal Floral, 80 E. State St., will be closed.
“We love (the current space) with the room of it, but we were wary about the location of it when we first came,” Neal said. “As we stayed here for a while, we kept hoping business would pick up, but it never got really quite back to what it was. It’s a really strange location to where people are unaware of where it is.”
Neal said she misses the foot traffic that came with West Union Street due to students and employees walking to the shop during lunch hours.
“This location was too far for them to do things like that,” Neal said. “We are hoping that the foot traffic will pick back up and that people will be able to stop in more freely.”
After the fire in 2014, Neal said that Jack Neal Floral lost most of their goods, and were only able to salvage a few vases. Neal is looking forward to returning to West Union Street and continue with the business.
“There will be no downtime,” Neal said. “We have the whole month of October to fix things in there, start moving things in, and then we plan to be fully functional Nov. 1. We are definitely super excited to be moving there.”
Herman “Butch” Hill Jr., Director Emeritus of the Manasseh Cutler Scholars Program is a frequent customer to Jack Neal Floral, and said he is excited for them to move closer to campus.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing,” Hill said. “I think flowers are a great way to show someone else that you care about them or what is going on with them. If someone has had a bad day or it’s their birthday, or I realise I’ve done something stupid that I need to apologize to my wife for, I can just go a couple of blocks up town.”
