Grassi Closes Downtown Flower Shop After 23 Years, Might Relocate to UP

While many shop owners would reflect sadly on closing their store after 23 years of business, University Place's mayor Ken Grassi sees it as an opportunity.

Grassi's Flowers & Gifts, located in the triangular building near the UW Tacoma campus on Pacific Avenue, will close its doors for good this Sunday, the Tacoma News Tribune reports.

Grassi said he plans to move his flower, cafe and catering business to either University Place or Tacoma's North End this summer.

"If this was about money, we would have left 20 years ago," Grassi told the TNT. "Now, we have an opportunity to reinvent ourselves."

He cited a lack of parking, downtown Tacoma's changing retail scene and the difficult economy as reasons for closing the Pacific Avenue store, plus the influx of student shoppers in the area looking for something different.

Will you miss Grassi's Flowers downtown? Are you excited at the prospect of a new location in UP? Tell us in the comments.