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NILES TOWNSHIP — Birds Eye View has secured a new vantage point in Niles Township.

The glass, recreation and CBD shop is in the process of relocating its business to the site of the former Dairy Queen on S. 11th St. near State Line Road.

Misty Lloyd co-founded Birds Eye View with her husband, Tony, 25 years ago in Benton Harbor and opened a second location in Niles’ Bell Plaza 21 years ago before moving to their current location at 2714 S. 11th St. In addition to CBD and glass products, BEV also offers items including body jewelry, clothing and vaporizers.

After decades of renting space for their business, Lloyd said that she and her husband purchased the former Dairy Queen building in May 2021 to have their own space. The building had sat vacant since 2016, when Dairy Queen relocated next door to the site of the former Fort Auto Sales building.

“We actually passed on buying the building the first time,” Lloyd said. “The second time, we believed we could make it work. We’ve been renting for more than 20 years, so we felt like it was a good time to pull the trigger to get our own place.”

Lloyd added that more parking space was an important factor in
relocating.

“We never planned on moving out of Niles. We love Niles,” she said. “Our business has grown, and we needed more parking for our customers. It is hard to share parking with three other businesses with not enough parking to go around. We have an older clientele, and there wasn’t handicap spacing for them. Winter weather doesn’t help, either. We wanted to have our own space and parking so we could do what we want. This isn’t a huge building, so buildout will be easy and fast.”

The business is expected to open in its new location at the end of the month or early February, according to Lloyd. She added that the business plans on utilizing the mini golf course located directly behind the building.

“We plan on opening that in the spring,” she said. “We may add some disc golf as well.”