From high-rise apartments to water and gas line replacements, Ann Arbor is no stranger to lengthy construction projects. Closures of many of the city’s roads and sidewalks has not only created additional obstacles for pedestrians, but is placing strain on some of Ann Arbor’s businesses.
In downtown Ann Arbor, a transit infrastructure project has torn up the asphalt of South Fourth Avenue, East William Street and East Washington Street. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Laura Horwath, owner of Ferne Boutique, said she believes the ongoing construction eliminates and undermines the small business appeal that draws people downtown.
“I think it can definitely deter people from coming here,” Horwath said. “I just think so many of the businesses downtown are independently owned; that’s the charm of coming here. So when you see a bunch of streets closed, you might not want to park and walk around.”
Horwath said navigating around the construction sites has been particularly challenging, and communication from city officials has been poor.
“I think that there is just a lack of communication about the projects,” Horwath said. “Now that they’ve started, we are having to react to them instead of, months ago, proactively, we could have been talking about ways to market coming here.”
Kaylan Mitchell, owner of The Getup Vintage, told The Daily she believes the city could have done a better job planning the volume of construction projects.
“There’s a lot happening right now. I’m a local; I’m downtown every day, and it still catches me by surprise,” Mitchell said. “I do think that the city could have done a little better in planning. We don’t need to do six different projects at the same time.”
In an interview with The Daily, Hank Nettels, manager of Olympia Skate Shop, also expressed frustration at the city’s lack of communication regarding construction.
“They have not been very communicative as to what they’ve closed” Nettels said. “Myself and other businesses on this block just want a little communication as to what’s going on.”
At the intersection of South University Avenue and Church Street, private apartment development projects have turned the busy intersection into a maze of fencing and shipping container tunnels. On the 1200 block of South University Avenue, one project has flattened several popular businesses and closed the entire block to vehicle traffic. In an interview with The Daily, Matthew Caplan, co-owner of Playa Bowls, said he has noticed a decrease in non-student patrons due to the ongoing construction.
“People don’t have a place to park, and it’s made it difficult to drive in that area”, Caplan said. “It really eliminates our non-student or off-campus customer base … they don’t want to have to deal with the headache of parking or driving”.
In an interview with The Daily, Quickly Boba co-owner Jay Zheng said he feels the road closures have caused a decrease in both in-person and online orders.
“We do notice less sales, even online,” Zheng said. “We usually do really well on DoorDash and Uber Eats online, but with the construction, (it’s) difficult for drivers to park and pick up food items, and it’s very inconvenient for visitors to visit that side of town.”
Caplan said the construction has also cut off the store’s utilities multiple times.
“They have cut gas lines; they have cut electrical lines,” Caplan said. “During construction, they knocked our power out on more than one occasion. It’s made it an inconvenience for us when we’ve not been able to operate because of the construction”.
In an email to The Daily, LSA rising junior Ana Cano, Playa Bowls employee, wrote construction has made her work commute longer and less predictable.
“Earlier in the year when the Diag was under construction it made my commute much longer since I had to go entirely around campus instead of through it,” Cano wrote. “There were also constant changes to the routes that were open so it was hard to gauge how long my commute to work would be and how to fit that around my busy schedule.”
In an interview with The Daily, Amanda Debek, owner of House of Chimney Cakes Café on South Fourth Avenue, said Ann Arbor should be compensating businesses whose sales are impacted by city construction projects.
“I’ve already reached out to the city for some sort of business compensation because it has affected us,” Debek said. “I don’t find it fair to the small business owners. We’re not Starbucks, where people will probably jump from roof to roof for us … they don’t care about (small businesses) like they do big brands like that.”
Daily Staff Reporter Micayla Horwitz can be reached at hmicayla@umich.edu.
