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Jul 06, 2023

Nicky’s Garden Center Adds Second Location in Center Wheeling

Aug 19, 2023 photo by: Emma Delk P.J. Lenz, left, and Nikki Lenz stand in the fairy garden room at Nicky’s Garden Center’s new second location in Center Wheeling, which has been open on the weekends

Aug 19, 2023

photo by: Emma Delk

P.J. Lenz, left, and Nikki Lenz stand in the fairy garden room at Nicky’s Garden Center’s new second location in Center Wheeling, which has been open on the weekends for customers to visit.

WHEELING — Nicky’s Garden Center is setting up shop at a second location in downtown Wheeling, shrinking four acres of green shop space into one building.

Owner Nikki Lenz explained the new store will provide the same “plants and garden supplies” in a “different downtown atmosphere,” with the store’s name Nicky’s Urban Garden Center fitting this description.

The new store at 2208 Market Street has already had a couple soft openings on the weekends in the fairy garden room. In this area, houseplants, candles and gifts are sold along with fresh-cut flowers available for purchase.

The other big draw of the store will be the outdoor garden space, with Lenz explaining she’s saving its opening for when the whole store will officially open “sometime around Labor Day.”

The outdoor area will have pond plants and larger garden plants for sale, along with pottery and outdoor art. The garden space also contains a small building for Lenz to host different classes, such as flower arranging.

“These two spaces allow us to transition from more house plant-centered items in the front shop to more garden items in the outdoor space,” said Lenz on the layout of the store.

With the garden also containing a koi pond on top of a variety of plants, Lenz hopes the area will provide a “relaxing atmosphere.” She pictures the outdoor space allowing her to introduce people “to new beautiful plants” while also providing “a lovely space for them to sit.”

“We want customers to just come back here and enjoy nature,” said Lenz. “I think this new location can kind of teach people you don’t have to live in the country to enjoy plants and nature.”

Lenz has already felt the influence of the urban atmosphere, saying she enjoys the “slower pace” at Market Street compared to their larger flagship store on Warden Run Road.

“We can work at a very vigorous pace in the greenhouses,” she added. “But here it’s nice, we can just educate people about our plants and talk to our customers about what we enjoy.”

Nikki acquired the building from her husband’s brother, George Lenz, who owns the building and also lives in the house next to it. One day while visiting his brother, P.J. Lenz realized the empty building could be “the perfect for a little shop” as he saw all the traffic moving down Market Street.

George Lenz accepted his brother’s offer and has been thrilled so far with the work the couple has done over the past two weeks to “revamp” the space.

“It’s been kind of sad for the last six years as this building has just sat here empty,” said George Lenz. “It’s nice to have P.J. and Nikki here bringing new energy and light to the space.”

P.J. Lenz explained that the couple has already begun to see the fruits of their labor as they have a lot of “uptown people” visiting the store that have never heard of Nicky’s Garden Center before.

“After being in business 52 years, you rarely interact with people that are not familiar with the store,” added P.J. “So that’s what’s neat about this new place, you just get a completely different type of atmosphere”

Apart from introducing new people to the store, the couple hopes that by shrinking the greenhouse space down at Market Street, they will be able to connect with customers better.

“The other store is a destination location where people wander off and explore, so this space will really allow us to see our customers more,” said Nikki Lenz. “It’s also nice to be more condensed so we don’t have to leave a customer for very long when we run to get them something.”

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