Businesses pitch in to bring floral beauty to downtown

Beauty is good for business, says Susan Godec.

Godec is the owner of the Phancy Pheasant gift shop, at 220 N. Tejon St., and the leader of a drive to replace the hanging flower pots that used to adorn downtown Colorado Springs with 4-foot-wide, 1,000-pound flower pots.

“I think beauty brings people,” Godec said. “They make a difference and make it feel like more of a community.”

A dozen of the massive flower pots went in about a month ago along Tejon between Platte Avenue and Kiowa Street. So far, the reaction has been good, said Ron Butlin, executive director of the Downtown Partnership.

“The idea is to make downtown an inviting, relaxing, visually interesting place,” he said.
The only negative comments he’s heard came from people who erroneously believe the cash-strapped city was paying for the beautification project. Godec collected donations from 16 merchants to cover the roughly $7,000 cost of the pots.

C&C Sand and Stone donated the fill material and Timberline Landscaping helped install the pots. The Business Improvement District is paying to water them.

“People were like, ‘Oh, I don’t know,’” Godec said. “I told them, ‘I promise you it will be well worth your donation.’”

Godec hopes to get a grant to expand the pots to other downtown streets next year and she’s seeking more donations.

Butlin said the hanging pots never created the kind of visual punch downtown needed.

“Frankly, a 14-inch hanging basket most people didn’t notice,” he said. “You go to some of the mountain towns, Frisco and some of the places, (they) have these giant hanging baskets that are just gorgeous. But our poles weren’t strong enough and we didn’t have irrigation, so we couldn’t do that.”

A great big pot on the ground, however, is pretty hard to miss.

“I would love for the pots to be a theme throughout downtown,” Butlin said.
—
Call the writer at 636-0275