How have the fields and wooded hillsides that once were home to a Guilford County dairy farm become the site of one of the nation’s most progressive retail developments? It’s a case study of a business finding ways to adapt to change, build on success and work toward a vision. New Garden Village is a 40-acre retail development now under construction adjacent to the New Garden Landscaping & Nursery facility at 5888 Old Oak Ridge Road in Greensboro. The Village is one of the first projects of its kind in the nation – designed as a campus that will eventually be home to dozens of independent, specialized retail and service businesses all dedicated to the home renaissance and outdoor living market segments.

The New Garden Village concept of related businesses sharing a single retail village-style site has its roots at New Garden’s Old Oak Ridge Road location. When the landscaping and nursery business, which was established in 1977, opened its Old Oak Ridge Road store in 1996, a new possibility became evident. The store’s immediate popularity with home-conscious customers, along with the spaciousness and pastoral setting of the site, created the opportunity for other outdoor living-oriented businesses to share the premises. Other retailers liked the idea, and soon Pine Hall Brick, Archadeck of the Triad, a fence building firm and a patio furniture retailer set up shop within a short walk of the nursery’s retail building.

The catalyst for expanding the retail village concept came in 1998, with the news that the New Garden store and its retail partners on Old Oak Ridge Road would have to relocate to make room for construction of Painter Boulevard (Greensboro's Outer Loop). A wide-ranging site search quickly made it clear that customers’ familiarity with the New Garden location and the additional transportation access to be generated by Painter Boulevard made the existing Old Oak Ridge Road site the best option for the future location of the businesses. And if this was the case for the existing occupants of the site, why not others?

A cooperative land transaction involving New Garden and the North Carolina Department of Transportation made it possible for the complex to have to move only a few hundred yards, to a tract off of Old Oak Ridge Road adjacent to the previous location. The tract secured in the transaction measured 40 acres—large enough to accommodate the New Garden Village vision of as many as 50 businesses, including stores, display areas, design studios and restaurants.

The Village moved from concept to its true form with “envisioning sessions,” where New Garden’s owners invited other Guilford County business people working in the outdoor living and home renaissance markets to share input on New Garden Village’s prospective appearance and business “personality.” From these sessions emerged a retail village with an identity unique to New Garden: a large-scale collaboration of merchants and craftspeople focused on consumers who are passionate about their homes, outdoor living areas and lifestyles, all situated in a consumer-friendly, architecturally pleasing environment.

Site Master Planning and Design
The layout, landscaping and overall exterior site design at New Garden Village have been carefully conceived to support the Village’s identity as the region’s premier home renaissance marketplace. As the nation’s only project developed specifically as a venue for home renaissance businesses, New Garden Village is a case study in how site planning can help stimulate customers’ ideas about what they can do to make-over their own home living spaces—before they even enter one of the stores.

The job of marrying the Village’s site plan to its customers’ shopping experience was accomplished by The Hayter Firm of Pinehurst, North Carolina—a firm nationally recognized for its work in creating landscape environments designed to enhance the customer shopping experience at a business venue. The firm has designed sites for garden centers throughout the eastern United States, in cities like Charleston, Asheville, Pittsburgh and others. Their resort venue experience includes Colonial Williamsburg; Pinehurst Resort; The Homestead in Hot Springs, VA; the K Club in Barbuda, West Indies; and Hotel El Salvador in San Salvador.

New Garden Village Merchants
As of Spring 2003 these merchants are committed to opening in New Garden Village. There is a limited amount of developable land that is still available for additional Home Renaissance products, services and retail space.

New Garden Landscaping & Nursery New Garden Landscape Design* New Garden Landscape Maintenance* Scott Stone Creek Side Village Right Touch Catering & Deli* The Wild Bird House* Events Center Patio Furniture Birdhouses Florist Outdoor Equipment The Wedding Garden Home Design Emporium www.homedesignemporium.com

Outdoor Living Terrace New Garden Exterior Lighting* New Garden Irrigation* Creative Pools Of Greensboro* Archadeck Of The Triad* Fence Builders, Inc.* Southern Expozures* Dutch Barns* Mortgage Company Additional Outdoor Living Vendors Pine Hall Brick www.pinehallbrick.com

*Committed or Letters of Intent submitted to be a part of New Garden Village