BY OLIVIA JUST
Hearst Connecticut Media
They seem to be everywhere in downtown Stamford, dominating the skyline and hovering above the gaping, dusty construction sites that sit like missing teeth on the city”™s landscape. They are the markers of progress and renewal in the city, but for many, the construction cranes that are forging the downtown”™s redevelopment represent a mixed blessing, part of the cost of doing business in a growing urban center.
With more than 1,000 residential units currently under construction in downtown Stamford, the work poses a dilemma for business owners, who must weigh the present inconveniences against the promise of future rewards. On one hand, there is the annoyance of the building under construction amid partially closed streets, limited parking spaces and grumbling customers. On the other, the potential for a new flow of business from completed residential projects is often enough incentive for businesses to wait out the building process.
Photo by Lindsay Perry
According to Sandy Goldstein, president of the Downtown Special Services District, construction is the worst and best thing that can happen to a business.
Goldstein estimated the new housing units could bring as many as 3,000 residents downtown. These are people, she said, “who will at one point eat in your restaurant, shop in your shoe store, or get their hair done at your salon.”
In some cases, restaurants have ceded the battle to the construction. This month, the popular Stamford outpost of Southport Brewing Co. closed after 14 years, citing the disruption of construction on Summer Street as a contributing factor. Directly across the street from SBC, work on Summer House, a 22-story residential and retail building, has been underway for about a year. Parts of the street have been blocked, slowing traffic at times to a tight, one-lane crawl, and the development of a second residential complex, Park Square West, demolished a spacious parking lot next to the Majestic 6 movie theater. Customers often didn”™t know where to park, or simply gave up at the sight of the street”™s congestion, said Bill daSilva, one of SBC”™s owners.
“That construction has killed everybody on the street,” daSilva said. “I”™ve lived through it numerous times, when they built Target and the Marriott, but this one has been nearly a year now.”
For many of those who grit their teeth and hold out until the noise and chaos end, compensation can be worth the wait.
“The restaurants I have talked to are excited about it,” Steven McDonald, president of Erland Construction, said of the Summer House development. “Not only will they have 200 construction workers right now, but there will be more than 200 units here” in the future.
Phil and Liz Costas, the owners of Seasons, a small but bustling caf̩ on Bank Street, once despaired at the way the lengthy renovations of Old Town Hall were stalling their business. In 2010, when the caf̩ was still known as KatieӪs Gourmet, customers struggled to deal with parking and the Costas abandoned plans to expand to outdoor seating.
“The construction was very difficult, with the streets and sidewalks closing, and the dust,” Liz Costas said. “I know it has to be done, it”™s just real hard to contend with.” Now, with work on Old Town Hall complete, things have picked up. Seasons has noticed its business increase by 10 to 15 percent since the renovated building reopened, Costas said. The Stamford Innovation Center and the Ballet School of Stamford, both in Old Town Hall, have contributed a new stream of customers into the restaurant for breakfast and lunch.
“We weathered through it and it”™s been great, actually, since it opened,” Costas said. “Once it”™s finished, it”™s terrific. In the interim, that”™s difficult.”
Nick Casinelli”™s business, Connecticut Cigar Co., a few doors down from Seasons on Bank Street, experienced the same detrimental effects during construction. Customers told him they had to circle the block in their cars and often left without coming into the shop because of the chaotic parking, Casinelli said.
Today, he noted, it”™s a very different story.
“We”™ve seen a nice growth,” Casinelli said. “I”™m looking forward to these new residences coming in. It”™s all eventually going to help, especially residential buildings.”
Hearst Connecticut Media includes four daily newspapers: Connecticut Post, Greenwich Time, The Advocate (Stamford) and The News Times (Danbury.) See stamfordadvocate.com for more from this reporter.
