City has a new flower shop
Awe Flowers will deliver to customers within a 3-mile radius.
Patti Sheldon loves flowers. She loves how they look, how they smell, how they make her feel.
“Flowers do something to the mind,” said Sheldon, a Lake Worth real estate broker the past 16 years. “It does something to the eyes. Just to walk down the sidewalk and to see fresh flowers is enlightening, pleasing. I t g i ve s yo u a good sense of well being. And we need good feelings in Lake Worth.”
P r o b l e m i s , whenever Sheldon wanted to buy an arrangement of flowers, she had to go outside the cit y to do it.
“Every town needs a fresh floral shop,” Sheldon said.
She got tired of waiting for one to open downtown, so Sheldon did the next best thing: she started her own.
Awe F l o we r s o p e n e d t h i s week on North L Street between Lake and Lucerne avenues in a 450-square-foot space owned by Peters Development. The official grand opening is set for Jan 27-29. Right now Sheldon is only taking customers by appointments.
Awe Flowers, which has two part-time employees, sells freshcut flowers. Customers also can order arrangements or have them made at the shop. Awe Flowers will deliver to customers within a 3-mile radius.
“We’re catering to people downtown,” Sheldon said. “We’ll also reach over the bridge to Palm Beach and South Palm Beach because they don’t have a florist either.”
As for the shop’s name, Sheldon said it suddenly popped into her head in the middle of the night.
“It came from brainstorming at 4 o’clock in the morning,” she said. “I went through a long list.”
Since the amount of floral experience Sheldon has can fit on a rose petal, she hired Barbara Aubel as her floral designer and arranger.
“I’ve been running a real estate businesses (Patti Chung Sheldon, LLC, Realty) for 16 years, but a floral shop is totally different,” Sheldon said. “But it’s still a business.”
Ariana Peters, a managing partner at Peters Development, said Sheldon has the smarts and can-do drive to pull off the venture.
“Patti is a wonderful, smart, loc al busine ss women,” said Peters, whose company owns more than 25 properties in and around downtown Lake Worth. “My sisters and I knew her prior to her leasing the Awe Flowers space from us. We have completed a few business deals with her and every one has not only gone smoothly but they have also all been successful.”
One recent afternoon, Jacquie Lisbin, a Lake Worth resident, walked into Awe Flowers with her dog, Lala. She was impressed.
“This place is so inviting,” Lisbin said. “Look at the colors, look at the flowers. It’s just beautiful and adds more variety to downtown.”
S h e l d o n , who wi l l mos t l y manage Awe Flowers, said she shouldn’t have any problems wearing two entrepreneurial hats.
“I love being busy,” she said. “And I love that I’m filling a void in Lake Worth.”