Category: Local Businesses || By

A longtime local business will be relocating to a new building come spring.

Breitinger's Flowers is constructing a new store at the intersection of Cool Springs Road and Route 48 in White Oak. Owner Russell Breitinger expects the building to be complete in March or April; the exact date of the move isn't yet known.

As Breitinger points out, it also may take several months for the landscaping --- an important tool for marketing a flower shop --- to be complete.

The current store on McKeesport's Versailles Avenue near Patterson Avenue is for sale.

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In a field dominated by large chains, Breitinger's stands out as a locally-owned, family-run business. The shop was founded just after World War II by Herbert Breitinger, a 1938 graduate of McKeesport High School who was inducted into its hall of fame in 2004.

According to a 2004 interview, after leaving the Army in 1945, Breitinger borrowed $500 from his cousin Bill Craig, founder of Craig Funeral Home on Versailles Avenue, to start the flower shop as a one-man operation. He closed the shop each day so he could make deliveries himself.

Herb Breitinger died in March 2006, aged 85. His son Russ Breitinger joined the firm in 1979; it currently has eight to 10 employees. Though privately owned and not required to release sales figures, Dun & Bradstreet estimates the store's annual business is in the half-million dollar range.

Now, Breitinger's joins a decade-long trend of retail and professional businesses in the city relocating to neighboring White Oak, many of them to spots along Lincoln Way.

Breitinger's purchased the Cool Springs property in 2004, and Russ Breitinger said he debated the move for "three or four years."

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A number of factors led to Breitinger's decision. The current shop is located in an old single-family home and a garage across an alley; workspaces and storage areas are on six different floors in two different buildings.

"I'm going to be 50 years old," Breitinger said, "and I'm tired of walking up and down stairs." Building a new store on one level will increase the business' efficiency, Breitinger said.

A lack of easy parking at the present location --- the store shares a lot with the Viking Lounge --- and a relatively small amount of walk-in trade hurts the business, Breitinger said.

The corner lot on Route 48 is a heavily trafficked, highly visible location that will allow Breitinger's to build its "cash-and-carry" business, he said.

One not unimportant factor was a conscious decision to move away from Versailles Avenue, Breitinger said. Once a prosperous mix of private homes, professional offices and neighborhood shops, many storefronts are now empty and foot traffic is light. Female employees and wedding planners sometimes feel threatened coming to the neighborhood alone at night, he said.

"The area is not the best right now," Breitinger said, "and we don't feel like we can do nighttime hours."

He's quick to note, however, that the Viking Lounge has been a good neighbor; the store abuts the local landmark and popular nightspot.

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Russ Breitinger is excited about the new building, and especially the chance to increase the store's walk-in trade. The new store is set at an angle to the highway --- all the better to increase its frontage --- and will provide Breitinger's with the chance to jump on special promotional offers from suppliers "at the drop of a hat," he said.

Breitinger's Flowers currently delivers to most of the Mon-Yough area, from West Homestead north of the city to Buena Vista in the south, and then from Swissvale west of McKeesport to North Huntingdon in the east.

Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday. The store's website is at BreitingersFlowers.com