AUBURN GRESHAM — Darkened skies cleared for sunshine Wednesday as Tatiana Williams welcomed local officials and community leaders to the groundbreaking ceremony for her first flower shop.
Tati’s Floral, a Black-woman-owned flower shop, will open at 1415 W. 79th St. in six months, Williams said Wednesday. The business will replace a beauty and barber shop in the long-vacant building, which Williams bought through the Cook County Land Bank in 2022.
Williams was awarded a $200,000 Community Development grant from the city in 2024. The grant will allow her to complete a “gut rehab” of the abandoned building with a new roof and renovations to the facade, Williams previously told Block Club. The total cost to redesign the space is about $315,000.
The vacant building at 1415 W. 79th St. will soon be home to Tati’s Floral, a business founded by an Auburn Gresham resident. Credit: Atavia Reed/Block Club Chicago
Williams will live blocks from the shop and walk to work, she said.
“Even in the rain, I’m grateful,” Williams said Wednesday. “This is my journey. Everything happens, and I just keep pushing forward. There’s been a lot of adversity, struggles that I’ve overcome, and I just keep going.”
Williams, a lifelong South Sider, has lived in Auburn Gresham since 2021, she said. She quickly joined her block club — soon becoming its president — and became involved with Block by Block Auburn Gresham, a nonprofit led by residents and business owners that works to revitalize the community. There, she connected with Ald. David Moore (17th), whose ward includes the store.
Along the way, Williams noticed dozens of vacant and abandoned buildings in her neighborhood and decided she “wanted to be part of the change,” she previously told Block Club.
Tatiana Williams (left) will open Tati’s Floral and Suites in Auburn Gresham this year. Credit: Tatiana Williams
Williams discovered a love for creating bouquets during the pandemic shutdown, she said. Her colorful arrangements of hydrangeas and roses — her favorite — brightened neighbors’ days.
Williams operated Tati’s Floral from her basement as a side business before she decided to leave her job at Chicago Public Schools after 11 years and dedicate her time to her flower designs, she said.
Plenty of entrepreneurs approach Moore’s office with dreams of opening a business, but they lack the finances and vision for how to get it done, he said Wednesday.
Williams “put her skin in the game” and secured a property from the Cook County Land Bank to make Tati’s Floral a reality before approaching Moore with financial needs, the alderman said.
“It’s one thing to talk about it, but you gotta be about it,” Moore said. “We can’t say we need people from our community to take care of their community and then not be there to help them when they do. The fact that you’re from the community [and] you invest in yourself, there was no way I was going to not let you get that grant.”
Tatiana Williams brings a sledgehammer to the building at 1415 W. 79th St. that will soon be home to her new flower shop. Credit: Atavia Reed/Block Club Chicago
Williams was approved for the city’s Community Development grant and received a bridge loan from Greenwood Archer Capital, a nonprofit that financially supports small businesses, to close a funding gap, she said Wednesday.
Now, the single mother will bring her vision to fruition in her community.
“This is a manifestation of a woman who had a dream and wouldn’t give up,” the Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina, said during a prayer Wednesday. “A woman who pursued even when there were obstacles, even when there was no support, even when she was all by herself. … This is a manifestation of her faith and a testimony to every other person in this community that if God speaks to you, you step out of the boat and walk on the water.”
Tatiana Williams purchased the vacant building at 1415 W. 79th St. from the Cook County Land Bank. Credit: Atavia Reed/Block Club Chicago
Tati’s Floral will have six suites entrepreneurs can rent and an outdoor patio where neighbors can convene. Hopefully, the floral business inspires a coffee shop owner to find a home in the building, Williams said.
While construction is underway at Tati’s Floral, Williams will host pop-up farmers markets this summer in the vacant lot adjacent to the 79th Street building to “pour back into our neighborhood,” she said.
“Because that’s what it takes,” Williams said. “It takes not one person but every person working together to make the greater good.”
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