I know when I’m out buying serious art my wallet is so heavy with cash that it is difficult for me to walk up a flight of stairs. (Dogs playing pool are expensive, and don’t even get me started on the price of crushed velvet.) Well, now downtown art lovers will have a new ground-floor gallery space to visit on Massachusetts Street, but it will come at the expense of a longtime children’s store.

The folks at Wonder Fair, the art gallery in the upstairs space above the Burger Stand at 803 Massachusetts St., have confirmed the business is moving into the space currently occupied by the Blue Dandelion, a longtime “children’s boutique” at 841 Massachusetts St. The owner of Blue Dandelion has announced that she is retiring and the store will soon close.

Meredith Moore, owner and gallery director for Wonder Fair, said the new location will at least triple the amount of retail gallery space the store has, and also will provide space for a new art supply store that the company will run.

“We’ll have a lot more expanded opportunities to be entrepreneurial in this space,” Moore said. “Our artists will have a lot more exposure. We’ll have a chance to partner with other startup artist companies. We’ll really have a big gallery space.”

For those of you not familiar with Wonder Fair, it has been in business for several years in its upstairs space and has gained a reputation as a gallery for fine prints and also quite a few everyday items such as hand-printed stationery and smaller pieces of art that sell for less than $100. (Dogs playing pool and crushed velvet are perhaps not its specialty.)

The shop works with about 100 local artists and usually has work on display from 20 to 30 artists at a time. That number is expected to grow some in the new space, Moore said.

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A big part of the new venture is expected to be the art supply store. Initially, the shop is expected to focus on supplies for printmaking and drawing. So that means a large selection of fine art papers, inks, pens, pencils and other such items. Moore said the store also will likely carry some paints and other supplies for artists that go beyond printmaking.

To add a twist to the venture, Moore said she is exploring the idea of setting up the print shop as a cooperative, meaning it would be owned by members, and those members would share in the profit of the venture. Cooperative-style ownership has worked well for places like The Merc, and Moore said she thinks the art community would take to the idea of a locally owned and operated supplier.

“Lawrence artists are really conscientious shoppers, and I think they want to shop local,” Moore said.

But speaking of twists, here is one for the business: It will host a secret order. You don’t hear a lot about secret orders anymore. In fact, it is downright funny how little publicity secret orders get these days.

But Moore is involved with one called the Secret Order of the Black Diamond. I can tell you its name because I made a deal with Moore that I would only whisper it. So, you should probably do the same. I’m no expert on the Secret Order of the Black Diamond (I once tried to give my wife what I thought was a black diamond that I won at a carnival, but, come to find out, rubber duckies don’t produce black diamonds — or a happy wife.) But my understanding of the Secret Order of the Black Diamond (still whispering) is that it is kind of like 19th century geocaching, which I always thought involved getting lost in the woods and being eaten by a pack of coyotes. But I may be wrong again. Moore described it more as a scavenger hunt where people go out in the community seeking a small box that contains a beautifully crafted clue or piece of art that leads you to another location and ultimately to a finish line.

www.wonderfair.com/blackdiamond

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“They’re basically treasure caches that lead people around the community to interesting places,” Moore said. “We also try to help people learn a little bit about places or people who are historically significant.”

Moore said she thinks of the project as interactive art, and apparently other people have really taken to the idea. She said the order has around 500 members, and has been one of the better funded arts campaigns on the crowdsourcing site Kickstarter. Plans call for the Wonder Fair location to serve as the “headquarters” for the secret society, meaning it will host meetings and events for the aficionados of the order.

In terms of a timeline for Wonder Fair to move into the space, Moore said it is “terrifyingly fast.” She has plans for a mid-September opening, she said.

As far as the Blue Dandelion goes, owner Kris Bailey told me she simply decided to retire as her five-year lease on the building was set to expire.

“I decided I didn’t want to do a another five years,” Bailey said.

The store has been in business for 10 years. A going out of business sale is underway currently. Bailey said she wasn’t sure when the last day of business would be for the store. She said that is partly dependent on how much merchandise she sells at Thursday’s Downtown Lawrence Sidewalk Sale.

In other news and notes from around town:

• Speaking of cooperatives, there are plans for a new multimillion-dollar retirement development in Lawrence that will use the cooperative model.

A Minnesota-based company called Village Cooperative says it has plans to build a new 52-unit housing development for people 62 years and older. The company hasn’t announced the exact location of the development, but an executive with the firm said it is a piece of ground on the south side of Sixth Street near the Wal-Mart at Sixth and Congressional. Look for more details on the exact location in the next day or two.

In the meantime, here are the basics as I understand them:

• 52 units that will range in size from 873 square feet to 1,507 square feet. Some units will be one bedroom, while others will be two bedrooms.

• The development will feature heated, underground parking.

• Ownership of the structure will be a cooperative model. Shane Wright, project manager for the development, said the project will sell 52 shares of stock — one share for each living unit. When you buy a share, you don’t really own the individual unit that you are living in. Instead, you own 1/52nd of the entire building. You are a shareholder in the cooperative, which owns the entire building. So, if something breaks in the unit you are living in, it is not your responsibility to fix it. It is the responsibility of the cooperative.

“There is a staff in place that does that for you,” Wright said. “We think it combines the best elements of owning and renting.”

• Prices for the shares are expected to be about $75,000 to $125,000, Wright said. In addition, residents will pay a monthly fee of between $900 to $1,500. That fee covers all taxes, maintenance issues and some utilities, Wright said.

• When it comes time to move, the cooperative markets your share to potential buyers. Wright said most cooperatives are marketing constantly to build up a waiting list of buyers. Wright said shares are expected to appreciate in value by about 3 percent per year.

The project is part of a larger company called Real Estate Equities Development, which is based in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. Wright, who is an owner of the company, said the firm recently opened its first cooperative in the Kansas City area on Johnson Drive in the Shawnee Mission area. Another project is being marketed in the Lenexa area, and a groundbreaking is planned for a Lee’s Summit project later this year.

Wright said the company will seek to sell at least 50 percent of all its shares before it starts on the Lawrence project. He said the soonest a Lawrence project will begin is probably next summer, and the development likely would take a year to build.

I’m expecting to get more information about the site in the next day or two, and I’ll provide you an update when I do.

• I mentioned the Downtown Lawrence Sidewalk Sale earlier, and I have news on that front. Well, kind of: I’ll be there from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and, no, I’m not seeking a great deal on a black diamond. (Well, if it is a really good deal, I’ll listen.) Instead, I’ll be at a Journal-World booth hoping to talk to a lot of folks in the community. If you have ever had something on your mind about the newspaper or our websites, stop by and let me know. As some of you may know, I recently was named as the new managing editor for the newspaper and its websites, which puts me in a position to direct our coverage on several fronts. So, I’m eager to hear from you.

And it should be a great adventure. When I come to work, I always — for 14 years now — wear a tie. We’ll see if I keep that streak going on Thursday. I’m already beginning to seek a ruling on whether the streak will remain intact if I wear the tie around my head as a sweatband. Look for the J-W booth at the southwest corner of Eighth and Mass.