After almost five decades in the same Main Street location, Apopka Florist is moving into a new, larger space and expanding its services, continuing the shop’s legacy in the community. 

Scheduled for a January 2026 grand opening, the expanded Apopka Florist will feature a coworking and meeting space, an upscale café serving premium coffee, smoothies, and light bites; podcast and content creator studios with professionally equipped recording spaces; and expanded floral and event design services. 

Apopka Florist currently occupies 2,300 square feet at address, 381 Main St. The new space, located near the Apopka movie theater at the Wekiva Riverwalk Shopping Plaza will be about 5,400 square feet, according to Edwin Cabrera. 

Cabrera and two partners purchased Apopka Florist in 2022 from the original owners, the Vincent family. 

Since the acquisition, the new owners have been expanding, adding more employees, and conducting market research on Gen Z and where they spend their time. 

“We already knew from the beginning that we wanted to eventually build a bigger space that would combine a flower shop with a little café, where people can come and just drink a coffee and then study and then have fresh flowers there,” Cabrera said in an Oct. 10 phone with the Apopka Chief. “So that was always something that we wanted to do. But with now streaming, social media, podcasts are so popular, there’s nothing in our area right now that has everything in one place. So, with the opportunity to move, we’re like, ‘Okay, now we’re getting a space big enough to do more than just flower shop and a little café. We can actually offer some more amenities to have that service in Apopka.” 

Cabrera said he didn’t know if establishing various amenities such as content creation studios into a flower shop is an emerging business model for the industry in general. However, this business model will work for Apopka Florist, he added. 

“The reason why we were able to do it, one is because there’s three of us, and two, because of the ecosystem and the industry that the three of us are in, outside of owning a flower shop, and able to bring that together all in one so that’s why it makes sense for us,” Cabrera said. “I’m not sure if it’s a business plan that most florists would want to go by, but it’s a good and proven plan as far as having a flower and a cafe, especially in New York.” 

The new, expanded space will also serve as a professional setting for employment interviews, which has been a need for the new owners since they first purchased Apopka Florist. The owners have hired about 12 employees since the acquisition, and the flower shop was often too busy, forcing them to find alternative spaces to interview candidates. 

Throughout the transition, Apopka Florist will retain its name but will also operate with a DBA (doing business as): The Bloom Lounge Apopka Florist and Creative Space. 

“It’s just a DBA, so it’s like an extension of Apopka Florist, but we want to make sure that the community knows that Apopka Florist is still going to be there,” Cabrera said. “It’s still the same family-owned business, the same designers that have been there for 30-plus years. Apopka Florist is not going anywhere. It is just now blooming into something more and extending more services through the Bloom Lounge.”