She was banned in Des Moines, welcomed in Burien and opened a superstore in Tukwila.

Now 25 years after her retail failure in Des Moines and rookie redemption in Burien, businesswoman Phyllis Heppenstall and her daughter own 19 Western Washington Lovers Package stores, eight Southern California Touch of Romance shops and a thriving Internet business.

As a successful entrepreneur in a frisky business, Heppenstall has been profiled in daily newspapers, business journals and community papers.

Heppenstall insists that her stores that sell various sensual lotions and notions are not the seedy shops you might see in specially zoned urban areas. About 60 percent of her customers are women.

“I approach sensuality as a business,” Heppenstall noted. “Why can’t we create a beautiful place to work on relationships?

“If we want a beautiful garden, it takes time and investment. It’s the same with relationships.”

She notes that a quarter century ago when she was searching for a business to start, the two growth areas were computers and sex.

“I didn’t know much about computers,” Heppenstall laughs.

After organizing hugely successful Tupperware-style parties featuring sensual products for suburban women, she looked around for a store location.

“I had a girlfriend with a hair salon in Des Moines,” Heppenstall remembers. “She told me there was a vacant spot next to an X-rated theater. I thought it would be perfect.”

By the time of her scheduled grand opening she still had not received her applied-for business license, but city hall staffers assured her all she needed was a fire inspection, according to Heppenstall.

She opened on a Saturday but on Sunday, a couple came in, looked around and the man asked her for her business license.

When she couldn’t produce one, Heppenstall said the undercover cop gave her a ticket and told her she would be fined $200 a day.

Thinking it was all a misunderstanding, Heppenstall returned to city hall the next morning.

“Nobody would see me,” Heppenstall recalls. “I waited four to five hours and finally I was told the mayor said there would be no business license.

“Life gives us lessons. I didn’t understand about politics in business,” Heppenstall notes. “People have just so much energy. I could have chosen to spend my energy fighting city hall.”

But instead, she loaded up her inventory in a pick-up truck and headed north to Burien.

Unlike Des Moines, Heppenstall was welcomed in Burien. For the past 10 years, the first Lovers Package store has been located next to Ivar’s on Southwest 148th Street.

In 1995, she was appointed to Burien’s newly formed Economic Development Council and was instrumental in choosing the site and design for Burien’s Park and Ride transit center.

“If you are in a community, you should become a part of it,” Heppenstall adds.

She’s excited to see the renovation of Burien’s South 152nd Street and the plans for a town square.

“Burien has a certain amount of charm,” Heppenstall declared. "It has a strong loyal local customer base.”

In October 1998, Heppenstall fulfilled her vision to open a “big, beautiful elegant place” when a building near Southcenter in Tukwila came on the market.

The result is Amour on the Boulevard, a 15,000 square foot three-story luxury superstore.

Heppenstall took me on a tour last week of her signature store. The first floor features lingerie, a few men’s briefs and 750 to 1,000 pairs of exotic shoes.

The basement is “LeCave” with supplies for pre-wedding and other parties.

The top floor is the media area and art gallery.

Heppenstall is also planning a museum on the third floor.

It will be unlike Tukwila’s other historical attraction -- the Museum of Flight.

Eric Mathison can be reached at hteditor@robinsonnews.com or 206-388-1855.