Tim Condron learned some tough lessons this year on how not to sell a business.

Mr. Condron owned a high-end flower shop on Centre Avenue in Shadyside that also provided decorations for weddings, events and homes.

Early last year, he decided to sell the business and move to Maine with his partner to be closer to the rest of his family.

But instead of listing the business for sale, he tried to sell it to one of his employees, Bill Chisnell, a 29-year-old floral designer who is a graduate of the Parsons School of Design.

Now, Mr. Condron wishes he had kept the entire deal at arm's reach, or at least stayed in town running the business until the deal was done.

Instead, after signing a sales agreement, he moved to Maine in September, leaving Mr. Chisnell to run the business while he was in the process of buying it.

That all came to an end this month. As of Feb. 6, Tim Condron Florist Inc. was closed. Mr. Chisnell and most of Mr. Condron's employees are now working about three blocks away on the third floor of a warehouse on Baum Boulevard that Mr. Chisnell has called Designspace.

"I worked 15 years to build that place to where it was," Mr. Condron said of his floral business. "To watch it go down the toilet in a weekend was devastating."

Now Mr. Condron is preparing to put the building on Centre Avenue up for sale as Mr. Chisnell is getting the new space on Baum Boulevard ready for customers.

On Thursday morning, the Designspace staff was working to get out Valentine's Day bouquets, and the delivery van was in the freight elevator waiting to be loaded. Mr. Chisnell said working out of the loft warehouse at 5746 Baum Blvd. suited him. The new space is twice as large as the former location, with 10,000-square-feet to be used for the workroom and cooler and a 4,000-square-foot showroom.

None of this is what Mr. Condron, 48, envisioned. He was hoping the deal would go through and allow him to make a fresh start.

He owes the state $46,000 in back sales and use taxes, and the taxes on his property on Centre Avenue also have not been paid, according to public records.

But Mr. Condron said the state of his debts had nothing to do with the deal. Even as the deal unravelled, he said, he took the tax obligations off the sales price to keep the business intact.

"Initially he wanted to go away debt free," Jim Zapf, Mr. Chisnell's partner, said. "Which involved a couple of commas," Mr. Chisnell added.

The deal would have included the ongoing business, its inventory and the building.

"It just wasn't an attractive offer for me to buy out," Mr. Chisnell said.

As the sale was pending, Mr. Chisnell opened his own company, Designspace, and began booking all of the clients for Tim Condron Florist through the new company.

Mr. Chisnell said that when he first looked at buying Mr. Condron's business, "it seemed like a good idea." But Mr. Chisnell said he already knew all of Mr. Condron's regular clients and had been working for them for years.

Neither Mr. Condron, nor Mr. Chisnell would say what the purchase price of the business was going to be.

There is still a lot to sort out. Mr. Condron's former employees are awaiting their last paycheck. Mr. Condron, when told of that, said it was the first he heard of it and that he thought Mr. Chisnell, who had been running the business, had paid them. Mr. Condron said he also has to figure out what other bills were unpaid while he was not minding the store.

But, he said, he is glad that his clients are being taken care of by Mr. Chisnell, whom he described as a talented designer.

Mr. Condron said he held out hope as late as January that Tim Condron Florist could survive.

"There's nothing more I wanted than to have that business keep going," he said.

Now, he said, he wishes he had just tried to sell the business to someone who immediately qualified for the loans needed to buy it.

"I would have gone in a whole different direction," he said.