by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Business owners on A. Philip Randolph Boulevard said Wednesday that a City plan to revitalize their street has resulted in empty sidewalks, vacant stores and plummeting sales.
As the road crosses Pippin Street, uneven asphalt crumbles into gravelly dust, the product of an eight-month, $2 million road resurfacing project. Traffic on the boulevard kicks up swirling sand columns into sticky afternoon air. Utility fixtures jut from the street at nearly every intersection. Most of the stores are empty, some of them are closed. A sign hanging in Buster’s Deli on the 800 block reads: “Closed due to dust.”
Project Manger Dave Schneider said the most obtrusive work is almost behind these struggling businesses. He said his crew would finish moving electrical and water lines — always the toughest part of a road job — in about a month. By August, Schneider said the work will be less disruptive. When the project concludes in December, the City envisions plush landscaping, wider sidewalks and historical light fixtures beckoning shoppers to this run-down corridor.
Boutique owner Darien Benn hopes he can make it that long.
“I’m sure it’s going to be a beautiful place when they finish.” said Benn, who opened his clothing store in February. “I just hope I’m here to see it.”
Schneider said his crew felt a duty to the community to keep the site safe and minimize construction affects. He said his crew uses water to keep down dust and keeps roads and sidewalks open when possible. Despite those efforts, which have added to the project’s cost and duration, business owners like Benn said their sales had suffered irreparable damage.
“We can never recover from this,” said Benn, waving toward racks full of clothes and shelves stacked with surplus merchandise. “People can buy clothing wherever. They might even be my friends but they’re not going to wait months to buy what they want.”
Benn said he pays nearly $700 monthly for rent and utilities. He worried that his seasonal clothes, racks of summer dresses, umbrellas and T-shirts, would not sell even if pedestrian traffic returns once the construction subsides. He said near-80 percent losses since the construction’s late-March start forced him to layoff both his employees and are now pushing him slowly into debt.
“I might pay $20 wholesale for a shirt, now I’ll sell it for $18. I’m selling below cost just to make ends meet,” said Benn.
Several businesses owners facing the same circumstances on the boulevard have chosen to close their doors and are now seeking compensation from the City. Schneider said the City and JEA hold biweekly Monday morning meetings to hear proprietor’s grievances, which have focused so far on requests for City payments.
Schneider said he’s worked 15-20 City road jobs of similar size and scope and never seen closed stores or compensation requests. Chief Administrative Officer Sam Mousa said the business owners would not be compensated.
“We do everything we can to minimize the affects of construction,” said Mousa. “We’ve worked on many roadways throughout the city and we’ve never compensated anybody for lost business.”
Schneider said the boulevard businesses would benefit in the long term from the underway improvements. In addition to improving the streetscape’s aesthetic, the project will move electrical wires underground where they will no longer clutter sidewalks and be protected from lightning strikes and high winds.
Joe Moore, owner of 45 Sundries convenience mart, said he understood the path to progress often travels a choppy road. He declined to join other business owners in their compensation requests although he thinks he’s lost 30-to-40 percent of his business in the last two months. Because he owns his building he doesn’t worry about paying rent with a dwindling cash flow and said the finished improvements would probably pay off for him when he sells his store. Still, he shook his head when a beer distributor emerged from his freezer.
“You were kind of slow last week, I can tell,” said John Fudge, the salesman. “You’re still stocked from last week, you’re not going to need a whole lot.”