Friends and family call Christy Webber "the golden goose" because it seems everything the Montrose, Mich., native touches becomes successful. However, Webber's Midas touch is less a matter of alchemy than the simple fact of a savvy businesswoman with a phenomenal work ethic. Her landscaping business, Christy Webber Landscapes, began in 1988 with two employees and a lawnmower and has grown into a multi-million dollar corporation whose roster of clients includes The United Center, both Midway and O'Hare Airports, McCormick Place, Navy Pier, the Museum of Science and Industry, and Webber's crowning glory Millennium Park.
This level of success would be enough for most people, but Christy Webber isn't most people. She's always up for a challenge. In addition to being a parent to one year old Oliver with partner Jennifer Rule, Christy has another new baby—of the entrepreneurial kind. Last November Webber assumed ownership of Grand Street Gardens, 2200 W. Grand. Webber explains, "Grand Street Gardens was just a great opportunity. It was close to our business. It was local and a part of my neighborhood. When I saw it was for sale I had an idea. I was curious what I was spending at gardening centers around town with the landscaping business. We did the research and realized that Christy Webber Landscapes was a built-in $50,000 customer. I thought to myself, 'Why am I giving all that business away?' I want to go to my own store, buy it in house, take what I need for the landscaping jobs, and what we don't use we can sell at the store."
Webber decided to keep the Grand Street Gardens name, feeling the gardening center needed its own identity and a separation from Christy Webber Landscapes. "People already knew it like that," she said. "Why change it?"
The name remained, but the shop has undergone plenty of other changes. The gardening center, which boasts a 10,000-square-foot yard and a 3,000-square-foot retail store, has been totally renovated since Webber took the reins late last year. "It was a cute little neighborhood garden center in need of a facelift," said Webber. "It had been forgotten. In the yard the weeds were taller than the perennials. The place needed to be revitalized. It needed a paint job and some redecorating as well as a good cleaning."
That "facelift" proved to be just the start. Next Christy had a huge yard sale to sell off a lot of the peripheral stock. "The goal of the previous owners was to be a little bit Pottery Barn, a little bit Restoration Hardware, a little bit garden center; they wanted it to be a little bit of everything to everybody," Webber said. "We knew that would never work. By doing that you have to compete with those larger companies and our buying power is nowhere near that. I worried that if a customer saw something in our store that they also saw and Crate and Barrel and we were charging five dollars more, they would question all our prices. As a destination store we really tried to stick with what we knew."
Grand Street Gardens general manager Erin Smith feels that the transformation of the store went deeper than merely cosmetic or a stock overhaul. "It is a different store with a different vibe and a more cohesive feel," said Webber. "There are plants out front lining Grand. People drive by and see we're here." A lot of customers comment to Erin about the change in the energy of the place.
Webber added, "People seem thrilled that someone bought it who had the resources to keep it alive."
There's great music playing, a shopper friendly layout with green canvas banners denoting the different sections such as shade annuals, tropicals, succulents, and ground cover, as well as ample street parking, and even carts to help transport purchases to your car. However, a large part of that great energy is the staff. Webber retained several of the previous employees and added some new workers as well. Currently, Grand Street Gardens employs 6-8 full-time and 8-10 part-timers. It's extremely important to Webber is that her employees be both friendly and knowledgeable. Chances are if you have a gardening question one of the folks in the lime green Grand Street Gardens T-shirt will have the answer whether it's needing pointers about a porch garden, selecting the proper ground cover, or wondering which perennials will work best on the somewhat shaded north side of a building.
The staff will also give pointers on how to start your own organic garden. Webber said with a laugh, "You know, that is the hottest damn thing—vegetables and edibles. It really is. People want to grow their own stuff. It's fun. I even bought a bunch of seeds and started one at home so Oliver could know what it's like to have a garden."
When asked about the goal of Grand Street Gardens, general manager Smith explained, "We're geared towards the urban gardener. We really want Grand Street Gardens to be a place where people living in the city can come to find everything they need to create an outdoor space with what they have whether that's a balcony or a postage stamp sized backyard. We want to provide the customer with all the tools, materials, and information they need to do that. We want them to be able to come here and with one stop see all the options they have for their outdoor living area whether they want to grow vegetables in containers or create wonderful balcony planters."
Webber nodded and succinctly added, "If you need it for your house in the city of Chicago, we've got it."
Seeing the bustle and energy beneath the green canvas banners of Grand Street Gardens on an overcast Wednesday afternoon, I am willing to bet that Webber has laid yet another golden egg.
See www.grandstreetgardens.com .
