Struggling Saint John businesses push for more timely news about construction work
Some business owners report steep drop in revenue and blame decreased foot and vehicle traffic
Businesses in uptown Saint John say they've felt the impact of nearby construction projects over the past year, with some seeing a drop in revenue of 30 to 50 per cent.
They're pushing for better communication from the city about how construction work will affect them.
Danielle Pellerin, who owns the Corn Crib, a natural food store, said she would like to hear more from city staff, "whether it be a phone call or email to say 'Your road is going to be closed from this time to this time estimated,' so that we can make a plan to notify our customers that it's going to happen."
Customers call her store regularly to complain about the lack of parking, she said.
Corn Crib is directly across from 99 King St., a former Woolworth store that was torn down in 2021. The site was left as a hole in the ground until July, when the city announced that construction of a planned 12-storey mixed-use building was moving forward.
Nancy Tissington, executive director of the Uptown Saint John Business Improvement Association, recently sent a letter to the city requesting help for businesses to mitigate the impact of construction on foot and vehicle traffic.
Recent projects in the vicinity include the Charlotte Street reconstruction and the top of King Street, a portion of which was closed between September and November.
While the street has reopened, parking remains an issue. The upper part of King once had parking spaces that have mostly been bought by Percy Wilbur, the developer behind the 99 King St. project, making them unusable.
"We lost one side of the whole street-parking room for the construction, understandably, but the other side of the street was to remain open for the public," said Shelly DeMerchant, who owns Urban Shoe Myth on King Street.
"But the contractors, their personnel are taking up a lot of the parking often throughout the day."
The result, Pellerin and DeMerchant said, has been a steep drop in revenues.
"Whether it's just perception or reality, the perception was it was too hard to get into uptown and too hard to drive around," said DeMerchant.
Pellerin said the construction, on top of the effects of COVID-19, has made running a business an uphill battle. While she and other businesses are holding on, "there's so many that just didn't make it," she said.
Businesses want to be kept in the loop
DeMerchant said she is thrilled about the King Street development but said businesses have no communication from the developer or the city on the status of the project.
Tissington wants the city to earmark a portion of the budget to support affected businesses before and during construction in an area, and for a "point of contact" to get information about potential impacts.
A couple of days or a week is "not enough to let people know that they're going to close down a street, regardless of what the situation is," she said, because local businesses need to plan how to allocate resources.
"Perhaps if they know they're going to be cut off from pedestrians and vehicles they would shorten or not make a large purchase in their inventory during that time, and they wouldn't hire the same amount of people as they had in previous years," she said.
Funding from the city would help the uptown business improvement association launch marketing strategies or promotions such as gift-card draws, for example, that could help businesses maintain their revenues, Tissington said.
She points to other cities, such as Toronto, where business improvement areas are offered grants in some cases, to reduce construction impacts.
Developer has little control over parking
Wilbur said his company has a liaison with the city but hasn't had any direct communication with businesses in the area.
"No matter what we tell some of the contractors or people coming to the site, they'll park in those spots in front of the business," he said. "We can't police it throughout the whole day but I can understand the business frustration."
City spokesperson Lisa Cassie said in a statement that the city works with private developers to communicate the impact of their projects, and the city is preparing a response that will address the business group's requests.
The statement also said the city communicates information about its own construction projects through online channels such as its website,And through traffic advisories and through engagement sessions.
"Communication plans for private development projects are generally undertaken by developers and their partners," Cassie said.
The city has added on-street parking to support local businesses, she said, and businesses do have a point of contact and a city staff member on the uptown group's board of directors.
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