Sea Lily Flower Shop 'Making It Work' While Working Out of a Trailer Due to Construction

It's hard to imagine Sea Lily Malibu's old and new location being more different.

Before it was bulldozed to make way for construction, Sea Lily Malibu was a boutique flower shop located in a small cottage on an open, pastoral plot of land peacefully tucked back a block off Pacific Coast Highway.

Today, the new—albeit temporary —location is a 16-by-8 trailer in a parking lot so close to PCH you can feel the wind of the cars and trucks as they whizz by. The business, now a block west and across the street from the old location, has been there since early February. 

Inside the trailer on Wednesday was sitting a patient Caytlyn McCloskey, Sea Lily's owner. A short distance across the parking lot, located in another trailer, is the temporary location of Trancas Canyon Nursery. McCloskey described the old locatation of the nursery and flower shop to Patch as "the Malibu oasis." Patch reader Candyce Francis called it a "secret garden."

The new location is not so secret. Pretty much anyone driving down busy PCH is likely to spot it now. The move has brought about new challenges for McCloskey, who has owned the shop for two years.

"It’s a lot harder because—the 16-by-8 trailer," McCloskey said. "I have none of my merchandise here. But, the location is great. I’m right off the PCH, and across from a dry cleaner, so that’s nice. But it has definitely impacted business. It’s just hard to work in a trailer and not know where everything is."

The temporary move has been necessary because developers of the Trancas Country Market have ripped out her old building to make way for a new space. Other shops in the center, such as Drill, Starbucks, Trancas Tailors & Cleaners, and Postal Annex, also had to move to temporary locations. Starbucks is operating a food truck in the parking lot. (Read more about the changes to their space here.)

McCloskey said most of her merchandise is now housed at her parents' house. Other challenges have been having to locate her credit card machine and business phone in another building across the parking lot from the trailer.

"I have to run my credit cards over there," McCloskey said. "So I have to say, 'Wait one second.' It’s a longer process. But we’re making it work. That’s all we can do, just keep going."

As tough as it has been, McCloskey said being located right on PCH has brought her some new customers.

"I have my strong clientele, and then I have picked up some new people because they never knew I was here, being way in the back," McCloskey said. "We’ve gotten a few drive-bys of people going, 'Oh wow, I didn’t even know there was a flower shop.'"

McCloskey said she was originally told the temp move would only be a few months, but now is looking like it could be longer.

"I have no idea, they keep pushing it," McCloskey said when asked how long she expected to be located in the trailer. "All the estimates of how long it will be keep getting pushed back and back. I think there’s a lot of permit problems. It’s hard to build and get things OK'd."

Come back to Patch for continuing coverage of the construction around the Trancas Country Market.