St. Paul businesses seek millions to mitigate road construction pain

Saran Fofana’s shop on Arcade Street on the East Side of St. Paul is often full of women getting their hair braided ahead of the weekend.

Instead, last Friday there was just one customer in Fofana’s shop and businesses along the formerly busy thoroughfare frustrated by their customers’ reaction to miles of road construction.

“They call and they go, ‘Oh, never mind,‘” Fofana said. “They go somewhere else.”

Arcade Street is closed for a complete once-in-a century, dig-out-the-old-cobblestones reconstruction, and it’s getting new water and sewer lines.

Work began March 31, but businesses are already seeing customers get discouraged amid miles of detours and barricaded streets — or give up and go somewhere else to get their hair done, to buy lunch, to cash their paychecks, to grab a six-pack on the way home from work.

A group of neighborhood business and community groups are trying to get help for the Arcade Street business owners. The group is working with East Side legislators to get $2.2 million in state funding to help the businesses weather the major construction project.

The bill was heard before the Senate Jobs and Economic Development Committee on April 2, but it is uncertain if it will be included in the state budget.

Marsha Allen of the East Side Neighborhood Development Company said the road work is a needed investment in the community, and she is looking forward to a new street.

But what’s the point of the $30 million state project, she asked, if there aren’t any more businesses on Arcade Street?

Roads close all the time, and businesses worry about impacts everywhere. But Paris Dunning, executive director of the East Side Area Business Association, said these major road-reconstruction projects are different beasts.

“It is not like normal state highway projects,” Dunning said. “They’re tearing out 145-year-old cobblestone. They’re digging down to tear out the sewer.”

The $2.2 million the East Side group is seeking would help an estimated 150 small businesses, many of which are owned by immigrants, stay afloat while Arcade Street is closed, Dunning said.

He said he thought legislators might be open to the idea, but worried some want to set up a statewide program to help businesses hurt by major construction on state highways, rather than offer immediate help to St. Paul businesses.

Other major St. Paul streets are set for construction this year, including ongoing work downtown plus projects on Robert Street on the West Side and Grand Avenue near Macalester College

Grand’s business owners are cautiously optimistic, said Deanna Seppanen of the Grand Avenue Business Association. She urged diners and shoppers to be persistent in getting to Grand this summer.

“Push your way through,” she said. “Do what you need to do to get to the businesses.”

Arcade Street’s business owners are less confident.

Approaching Arcade Street from the west or east, drivers see metal barricades with small orange signs reading “Business access.”

The Minnesota Department of Transportation promised that access in community meetings, but Dunning said most people thought that would mean an open driving lane outside Arcade Street shops.

It was a surprise to see the road almost totally closed, he said, with many blocks completely barricaded.

Arcade Street is only open intermittently for the next six months, according to MnDOT, with several blocks totally closed between York and Maryland Avenues and more construction north of Wheelock Parkway into Maplewood.

The detours have already tripped up some. Molly Kong, of Kong’s Kitchen, said five large orders were never picked up or paid for one day last week, with delivery drivers unable to park outside.

The first week of the road closure has been difficult.

“For Monday to Friday, I’m looking at 40-45% loss in business each day,” said Chang Vang, manager of Arcade Wine and Spirits.

Fofana said she had far fewer customers at her hair braiding business last week than the week before.

Her neighbor, Madosu Kanneh, said she had three or four customers in her beauty supply shop all last week. She opened the shop just a year ago, but isn’t sure how long she will last if it stays this slow.

“Nobody wants to park two blocks away and walk to a business,” Kanneh said.

But some customers were starting to find their ways onto Arcade Street at the end of last week.

Lunch orders were starting to pick up at Kong’s Kitchen early Friday afternoon, even if it wasn’t as busy as usual. As Kong seated one man in a booth, she apologized for the streets.

“I just took back roads,” the man said with a shrug.

“Thank you for making your way here,” Kong said.