Doug McCormick decided he’d had enough of the flower business and packed up and moved to Florida, only to find himself back in the same store, barely a year later, but with a new business.

Capital City Antique Gallery opened Jan. 22 at 519 Des Moines St., the same location where McCormick and his partner, Jim Adams, had operated Capital City Florist for 15 years. Their shop’s final years had been challenging, mostly due to increased competition from general retailers, McCormick said.

“The flower business, pretty much all over the country, is being swallowed up by the Wal-Marts, Home Depots, Menards and grocery stores,” he said. “Being across the street from one of the busiest funeral homes in the city (Hamilton’s), we saw six Hy-Vee trucks to every one floral shop.”

McCormick said the reconstruction of Interstate 235 also took its toll on business. Whereas about 20,000 cars had passed by the store every morning as commuters made their way into the city along East Sixth Street, the volume declined to a trickle during the bridge and interchange reconstruction in 2002 and 2003. McCormick, who had spent about 40 years working in the floral business, was ready for a change, and he and Adams closed up shop on Christmas Eve 2003.

“Basically, we decided that we didn’t want to battle it anymore,” McCormick said. “So we went into ‘semi-retirement’ in Fort Lauderdale.”

Starting anew, he and Adams dabbled in antiques in Florida. They set up a booth in a local antiques store, and before long, they had an idea for a new business.

“We found down in Florida that there is this tremendous supply of antiques that people don’t want,” McCormick said. “They’re into retro and more of the chromes. We started collecting this stuff, and from talking with people and auctioneers here, we found out there aren’t a lot of quality antiques left up here. We knew this building was still vacant, so we decided if we could see if we could get it, and we started shipping things up to Iowa.”

In a short period of time, McCormick and Adams have bought about seven warehouses full of antiques, with owners selling their items for as little as 10 percent of market value just to be rid of the “unmovable” pieces.

“What’s happened over the years down there is that people have migrated to Florida, and as they died off, their offspring sold the stuff. People bought it up, found out there wasn’t a resale market for it and they stored it,” McCormick said. “We bought a warehouse about a month ago where the stuff had been stored for almost five years, and we found the most fabulous pieces you can possibly imagine.”

Capital City Antique Gallery specializes in furniture, but also carries some decorative items and will eventually offer some potteries and glassware. One of the more unusual things in the store right now is an exact replica of Louis X’s parlor set made by a man in Palm Beach. One-of-a-kind items and a tasteful display make their store distinct from others in the area, McCormick said. New shipments will arrive about every six weeks to keep the selection fresh, he said.

The store is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Call 288-3046 for more information.