Road construction threatened mom-and-pop shops. This St. Paul neighborhood got help.

The mom-and-pop shops along St. Paul’s construction-plagued Arcade Street will be getting a financial boost, thanks to the neighborhoods’ organizing that led to an earmark from the Legislature.

A $250,000 grant in the state transportation bill will distribute up to $5,000 to up to 50 Arcade Street mom-and-pop businesses to offset their losses during construction.

The road, a part of Hwy. 61 that runs through St. Paul, was ripped up this spring for a reconstruction project. Businesses were told to brace for Arcade Street to be closed for up to six months.

On Thursday, business owners and advocates gathered at Family Foods Market, a small Asian grocery on Arcade Street, to celebrate the financial aid.

“As a small business owner, I’d rather keep working instead of trying to get some help,” said Rolando Aguilar, whose check-cashing business on Arcade Street saw its parking lot blocked by construction. But he said it felt good to work with his neighbors to get support for all the businesses that are hurting.

“We all pay taxes, and this is our tax dollars coming back to recharge our communities,” said Rep. Liz Lee, DFL-St. Paul, who represents part of the East Side.

The aid is far less than the businesses and their advocates had hoped for, but in a challenging budget cycle that took a special session to resolve, it was a surprise the earmark came through at all.

Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, said East Siders and their representatives, especially Sen. Foung Hawj, DFL-St. Paul, were relentless in keeping Arcade Street in the conversation during the session.

“I’m a little stubborn and persistent in my optimism,” Hawj said.

Dibble said Hawj would ask him about Arcade Street almost every time they went to the Senate floor this spring, and noted he often saw Paris Dunning, executive director of the East Side Area Business Association, around the capitol.

Their persistence helped Dibble get the earmark for Arcade Street included in the state’s transportation bill.

The $250,000 is just a fraction of the $2.2 million that East Side groups sought, it and means fewer businesses will be helped.

But Jack Byers of the Payne-Phalen District Planning Council joked, “That’s more than any professional sports franchise got!”

The East Side Neighborhood Development Company is administering the money and working to let Arcade Street businesses know they can apply for funds.

Eligible businesses must employ fewer than 25 people, be within 300 feet of the construction and demonstrate how the closed street has hurt their bottom lines.

Byers said he thought maintaining businesses should be part of future construction planning, especially as the neighborhood stares down major work on nearby East 7th Street planned in 2026.

“If the transportation project happens and the street is rebuilt but all the businesses are closed, it would not be a success,” he said.