by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
On Feb. 10 at the official groundbreaking ceremony for the Laura Street improvement project, City Council member Don Redman, whose district includes the street, said, “I know this is the beginning of a great thing in Downtown Jacksonville. The businesses along this route may have a rough time while we are working, but it will be nice when it’s finished.”
Redman was absolutely right.
Construction of the roundabout at the foot of Laura Street in front of the Landing took twice as long as planned to complete. While the area was a construction zone unfriendly to pedestrians, “All of our merchants felt an impact from loss of sales,” said Michael Chambliss, Landing director of marketing.
As the project has moved north block by block, the street and the sidewalks have been temporarily closed to allow for the complete renovation of the connection between the Landing and Hemming Plaza. That became a concern this week for merchants on the block between Adams and Monroe streets this week as they watched the project approach the intersection a few feet from their front doors.
“It would be a disaster to have it (construction) here during December,” said Sharla Valeski, owner of The Next Gallery in the Elks Building. “Artists have made items just for the holidays and I have ordered extra gift inventory.
“If people aren’t able to come here and buy it, I’ll put it on eBay, but that’s not why I pay rent Downtown.”
As it turns out, the same factors that caused the Landing roundabout phase of the project to take twice as long as initially planned will ensure that the heavy earth moving equipment and jackhammers won’t be working in the block between Jacobs Jewelers and the plaza any time soon.
“We’re moving forward in the block between Forsyth and Adams streets,” said Paul Crawford, deputy executive director of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission and the project manager for the Laura Street improvements. “But we won’t be working on the block between Adams and Monroe streets for at least six or eight weeks.”
He said the Forsyth to Adams block is taking longer than anticipated due to issues that the City nor the contractor knew about until the work began. Crawford said portions of basements that extend under Laura Street have been discovered, even though no evidence of the spaces was detected during preliminary surveys inside the buildings on the street. A similar situation occurred a few years ago during the Main Street sidewalk beautification project when a space that had been “walled up” inside the Farah & Farah Building’s basement was found after the sidewalk above was demolished.
When it comes to tearing up the sidewalk in front of the businesses along Laura Street in the block south of Hemming Plaza, where several shops have only one entrance, Crawford said that work will be done with a minimum of disruption for retailers and their customers.
The demolition of the sidewalk will be done in sections and, “The obstructive work will be started on Friday night and it will be finished by the following Monday morning,” he said.
Jacobs Jewelers is one of the retailers with its only entrance facing Laura Street. Owner Roy Thomas is taking a pragmatic view of the construction.
“I’ve been in business Downtown for 50 years, so I’ve seen a lot of projects. JEDC seems to be on top of the situation and it will be a lot better for everyone when it’s finished. These things take time. It can’t happen overnight,” he said.
“The goal is to make Laura Street a success for pedestrians and pedestrians are customers. Is it painless? No, but it’s well worth it,” said Crawford.
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