Ron Midgett has opened New Earth Orchids, a start-up business in Plaza Contenta, the commercial area of Tierra Contenta.

New Earth Orchids features a wide variety of the beautiful plants for sale, ranging in price from a few dollars to $3,000, depending, among other things, on the quality of the flower and how prolific it is.

Midgett has a wide knowledge of the complicated process of raising orchids for sale and is a professional orchid breeder, one of only 20 or so in the country.

"It's been my life for many years," Midgett said

Plaza Contenta already has a greenhouse building that's proven perfect for Midgett's needs. Tuesday through Friday, he opens the store at noon after using the morning hours to create an orchid sales and maintenance business for corporate clients in Santa Fe.

"I have two good (corporate) prospects" in Santa Fe, he said, declining to disclose the name of those businesses. "There are successful models for this kind of business in the East."

New Earth Orchids has received a hearty welcome from the other merchants at Plaza Contenta, the 7.5-acre parcel at the southside residential development of Tierra Contenta.

"This shopping center just keeps growing," said Linda Ruckel, owner of Advance Tax Services, which is based at Plaza Contenta. Ruckel said business has "really been good for me here" since she moved out of the Santa Fe Business Incubator, where she started her company.

Among the other new businesses at Plaza Contenta are AP Wireless; Faith and Hair, a hair salon; and Caballeros, which sells boots and clothing.

An exercise studio, Santé, closed after six months at Plaza Contenta because there were too few customers. The studio continues to operate elsewhere in Santa Fe.

Ruckel is negotiating for a larger space where she will create the Plaza Contenta Business Center, with rooms available for rent. Ruckel will also teach business-related classes there. Those classes would include, for example, e-mail etiquette and social marketing.

Ruckel, an enrolled agent, also plans to offer tax-related classes. "We will be one of the key people giving these classes" in the area, she said.

The first business in Plaza Contenta, Miklo's Coffee House, is still there under the same ownership of Edwina Garcia and Russell "Miklo" Pack.

Miklo's could be busier, Garcia said.

"We do decent business, but I wouldn't complain about more customers," she said. "We definitely need more traffic."

Garcia said many people still don't know she's there or that her menu features some of the lowest prices in Santa Fe. "We have quality pastries that sell for a dollar less than other places in town," she said.

James Hicks, the executive director of Tierra Contenta Corp., said Plaza Contenta has not leased out as quickly as expected because of competition from retail business areas on nearby Cerrillos and Airport roads.

The Tierra Contenta Corp. is the nonprofit organization that oversees the development of the Tierra Contenta subdivision and Plaza Contenta. Tierra Contenta's offices are in Plaza Contenta.

Hicks said his organization has half an acre of donated land that is intended as a Plaza Contenta park.

"But we need the money to maintain it" before moving ahead, he said. "The city doesn't want to do it because the price is too high. We decided to get it done as a private park."

The plan, now that the park land is private, is try to figure out where funding might be available to maintain the facility, Hicks said.