Ventura County Star
By Jim Woodard
Juan Carlo / Star staff Emerald Coast Plantscapes in Newbury Park, owned by Kevin Urquhart, places and services plants in restaurants, medical and law offices and retail centers.
Five years ago, Kevin Urquhart decided to use his 25 years of horticulture and interior design experience to launch a new business from his Newbury Park home. It turned out to be a very successful and strategically timed venture.
His firm, Emerald Coast Plantscapes, supplies and maintains selected plants for business and professional offices and other commercial sites in Ventura County.
"Initially, we visit the business of a prospective customer and specify the locations that would most benefit from the placement of attractive plants," Urquhart said. "Then we recommend the size and variety of plants that would best complement those spaces. We create plantscapes that will transform a business environment into one that is serene, pleasant and welcoming — one that fosters productivity."
After the plants are positioned, one of Emerald Coast's nine staff members maintains them weekly, giving them needed water and fertilizer. If a plant fails, it is replaced at no cost to the customer.
The monthly fee varies depending on many factors, but starts at $125. The overall average fee is about $250 per month. In some cases, the firm provides extended services, such as installing large specimen trees or planning built-in planters and atriums.
A growing segment of the business is providing plants in model homes in new residential developments, and staging for marketing purposes.
The business was launched at a particularly strategic time as recent scientific studies show that the proper use of interior plants clean the air of pollutants found in many buildings. The studies also reveal that plants contribute to the morale, productivity and well-being of those who work and visit in buildings that display plants, Urguhart pointed out.
"Interior plants are a big part of the solution to creating healthy buildings — known today as Green Buildings. As long as I can remember it has been a dream of mine to own and run a successful business, as this is turning out to be," said Urquhart, 44.
About half of his current 100 customers have contracted for plants in commercial buildings. The other half are for residential structures.
The firm is a member of Plantscape Industry Alliance and the Plants at Work organization. The Emerald Coast office and warehouse is at 2624 Lavery Court, Suite 207, in Newbury Park.
For more information about Emerald Coast Plantscapes, visit the firm's Web site: http://www.emeraldcoastplants.com or phone 480-9141.
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There have been a variety of stories about those two rugged eucalyptus trees that stand majestically atop "Two Trees Hill" overlooking Ventura. Considering all the interest and talk about those trees, the owners of a new Ventura restaurant decided to name their restaurant, Two Trees Cafe.
The business is a breakfast-lunch eatery at 7822 Telegraph Road in east Ventura in the Albertsons Shopping Center at the corner of Kimball Road.
The owners are two young brothers, Raul and Isaac Rubalcava, age 28 and 25, respectively. They opened the doors of their cafe for the first time on June 7.
The brothers are sons of Raul Rubalcava Sr., who has owned and operated Main Street Restaurant & Steakhouse in midtown Ventura for the past 12 years. Both brothers have been actively involved with their father's restaurant but have long been planning to open their own restaurant in east Ventura.
"We researched the area quite thoroughly before deciding on our current location," Raul Jr. said. "We considered another location in east Ventura but finally decided to sign a two-year lease on the Telegraph Road offering. So far, our business volume is better than we anticipated for this early point in our operation."
There are a total of six employees now at the new cafe — all Rubalcava relatives. It's open daily from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The brothers also have other business interests. Raul Jr. is a teacher at Ventura High School, teaching Spanish and English languages. Isaac is a business consultant. And they both still have some responsibilities at their father's restaurant.
When this restaurant reaches a healthy rate of profitability, the brothers plan to open other units, probably starting with one in Oxnard. For more information about Two Trees Cafe, phone 659-3365.
— Star columnist Jim Woodard, a Ventura resident, is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. Fax him at 644-0790 or e-mail him at Storyjim@aol.com.
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