After more than a year of headache-inducing construction, life is beginning to return to normal for some businesses on 23rd Avenue South and Jackson Street.
âWe were âfortunate,â if you want to call it that,â says Kimberly Melegrito, owner of WGM Jeweler & Co., a watch repair and jewelry store in the Central District, which sits just off of 23rd Avenue and Jackson Street. She and her husband, Wenceslao, opened their store in 2001 after moving out of a spot around the corner in the Promenade 23 strip mall, where they first opened in 1992.
Although the city-led street improvement project was intended to be done in phases, multiple blocks along the street were torn up simultaneously thanks to project delays. The Seattle Department of Transportation, which is leading the project, estimates construction will be completed in early 2017.
Kimberly Melegrito says that the construction pushed out neighbors and dedicated customers alike. Even her friends told her they began avoiding driving and even walking in the area because of nightmarish traffic and dangerous sidewalks. Business dropped by nearly 70 percent because customers couldnât tell whether the store was open, she told The Stranger.
After pleading with the city for assistance, Melegrito and less than 30 other 23rd Avenue business owners along 23rd Avenue received money from a $650,000 mitigation fund. The money was pooled from federal Community Development Block Grants and funds from a federal tax program intended for development in low-income areas. Melegrito said she received about $25,000 from the city.
Unlike some newer businesses in the area, the money âgave us a better chance of surviving,â she said. The money went towards paying off bills and recovering inventory, which was lost during a robbery in March believed that the construction was what made the break-in possible. Thanks to broken-up sidewalks and piles of debris, the streets didnât have their usual foot traffic, so no one was around to see someone break into the store at three oâ clock in the afternoon, Melegrito explained.
âWhen I called it in, [Seattle police officers] took 15 minutes to get in. There was no place for them to stop [because of construction],â she said. âIt was so emotionally draining. You have to factor in the human element because youâve seen your business decimated beyond your control.â
Months later, Melegrito told The Stranger that her business is finally beginning to recover. Today, the road on that intersection isnât clogged with the construction vehicles, rebar, or broken concrete. Just some scattered neon orange traffic cones remain. Customers are slowly trickling back in because the block is cleared, but business isnât totally back to normal, she said.
Frank Taylor, owner of Frankâs Barber & Beauty Salon, echoed the same sentiment. His business, which has been housed in Promenade 23 for the past 10 years, lost nearly half of their customers.
âThey want to be able to get [their hair] done on a continual basis. If you canât supply them that service, theyâll go elsewhere,â he said.
Business was so bad at one point that Taylor fell behind on rent and received an eviction notice. He was able to clear that up by dipping into his personal savings to pay the rent, he said.
Taylor didnât just lose customers, either. Even three employees who worked at the salon as freelance hairstylists had to quit, he said. âThey told me they canât afford the rent. They were barely making their own bills,â he said. One employee moved out as far as Puyallup.
Even though construction has cleared up, âitâs not what it used to be. People are gone. Theyâve relocated, found different salons to go to,â Taylor said. "But thatâs life. Businesses have their ups and downs. Itâs all a part of it."
Taylor said he is now facing another challenge. He has to find a new store to move into by June 2017 because Promenade 23, the strip mall in which is shop is located, was recently purchased by Vulcan, Inc., a real estate group owned by Paul Allen. Vulcan's redevelopment project would close small businesses and replace them with 570 new apartments. Beloved businesses like Red Apple Market are being pushed out by the redevelopment.
Taylor told The Stranger that he will try to meet with city officials to discuss getting help for the move, which will be costly, he said. Representatives with the city Office of Economic Development did not return calls for comment at the time of publication.
"Everything is going up because of a new construction and the big corporations that are coming in," Taylor said. "Everywhere you look on every street, thereâs new construction going on. Itâs squeezing us out. Iâm not going to take this sitting down. I really need some help."
