When Jen Bellefleur arrived at her business New Gild Jewelers in Linden Hills on April 15, she found out that 43rd Street, where her business fronts, was to be closed down for sanitary sewer improvements. Project officials told her that the construction would wrap up by June 28, but when she looked out the window on June 27 the project seemed to have made very little progress.

“It seemed every bit as disastrous as day two of the project,” said Bellefleur. “And instead of admitting with some kind of advanced notice that they were way behind, they waited until 4:30 p.m. on June 27 to admit that it wasn’t going to get done.” Due to subsurface issues, the city of Minneapolis project planned to replace more than 200 feet of pipe and adjacent structures had been extended loosely to October. At this time, there is no official date on when roads will reopen at 43rd and Upton.

Bellefleur’s experience is one that’s shared by many other small businesses. From Hennepin Avenue in Uptown to 50th and France in Edina, there are stretches of dug-up roads and construction equipment that have limited vehicular and foot traffic, a necessity for brick-and-mortar stores in the digital age.

New Gild Jewelers offers a full custom jewelry process that prioritizes the high-touch experience of jewelry shopping. But it’s an experience that must be had in person, said Bellefleur. A construction project obstructing street access may deter customers from making the journey out. And it’s not just customers coming in by appointment; the boutique also offers an in-store gallery of ready-to-wear jewelry that’s feeling the drop in foot traffic.

This all has caused a minimum of 20% reduction in business, said Bellefleur. “It was enough to cause us to lay one person off and reduce other people’s hours by one day a week.” She added that she and her co-owner had to cancel a buying trip in July due to no longer being able to afford the travel expenses.

“When you’re a retailer, how can you compensate for the reduction in customers?” she said. “It isn’t like I can start selling take-out food. We only do what we can do.”

Getting creative

Small business owners often wear many hats when running their businesses–finance, marketing, and HR, to name a few. But many small businesses throughout the Twin Cities have had to take it a step further, collaborating with other local businesses to liven the streets around them–a lift-all-boats mentality.

The 50th & France retail district in Edina came together to put on the “Summer on 50th” block pop-up, taking advantage of a five-week closure of 50th Street for Metro Transit bus stop construction that started on July 18. The pop-up featured activities like yoga, dance, and chalk art sprinkled throughout the closure timeline, combined with conversation areas and even 25-foot-tall potted trees to provide shade.

“The idea was if you’re going to close the street, rather than just have it be a big paved parking lot, let’s make it a place where people actually want to come hang out,” said Bill Neuendorf, economic development manager of the city of Edina. “The idea was to give customers an extra reason to come down.”

And it’s been successful, he added. “I don’t intend to have 400 people showing up standing around in the street, but if I can make a space where 10–20 people at any given time of the day feel comfortable just hanging out, making a phone call, talking to their friend, talking to their business colleague–it has been pretty successful in that regard.”

Similar efforts were echoed in Plymouth in the form of a Road Construction Business Passport, an initiative that offers incentives to shop, visit, and dine at Plymouth businesses until Sep. 30. Jen Nylin, owner of boutique Jenny in the City, hopes to spearhead a passport approach as well with fellow St. Paul businesses in the fall.

At the end of July, the boutique announced its decision to close its France Avenue location due to dropped sales of more than 70% as a result of the construction. Moving forward, Nylin will focus solely on her St. Paul store. Although she is excited to lose the stress of managing two locations, the experience has made her weary.

“As a small business owner, you really have to adapt fast and quickly come up with these things, and it’s exhausting,” she said. “When you’re the only one doing everything–I don’t have a marketing team and an event team, it’s me doing every aspect–it’s hard.”

What should a safety net for small businesses look like? 

There have been some programs in the past designed to provide a cushion for small businesses during a tough economic climate. For instance, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (MN DEED) announced the MN Promise Act during the 2023 legislative session, a loan and grant program to support disadvantaged small businesses located in certain neighborhoods around the state.

But it hasn’t been a one-size-fits-all, even for businesses who especially need it. Former Uptown boutique Les Sól, for instance, was three blocks outside the support zone, and thus ineligible. The boutique’s owners decide to close down in early June due to the rampant Lake Street construction.

Elliott Payne, city council member for Ward 1, has been mulling what a safety net for small businesses impacted by construction projects should look like. His district, a collection of neighborhoods in Northeast and Southeast Minneapolis, currently has many ongoing construction projects, including the Lowry Avenue construction, which is currently forecasted to wrap up in 2027.

“One thing that I want to think about from a bigger system perspective is are we actually taking into account the businesses along these construction projects?” said Payne.

One avenue may be through the Regional Solicitation process, he said. It’s a Metropolitan Council effort that prioritizes and invests in infrastructure projects. The process happens every two years and awards about $250 million in federal funds.

“Should we be putting into the [project] funding criteria some sort of anti-displacement funds or business assistance funds as part of the cost of doing construction?” he said. “That’s the conversation that’s happening right now.”

Communication is key

A running consensus among small business owners is that communication around infrastructure projects can be much improved. Construction projects at 50th and France have impacted eight intersections, according to Neuendorf of Edina. Many local restaurants and retailers had likely prepared for the summer season by either hiring seasonal workers or more inventory, but many didn’t know this would be an all-summer project until May, he said.

“With more notice and attention to the impact of construction on businesses, I think that can certainly soften the blow,“ he said. “I don’t think they took the business impact into consideration. If they did, it’s not at all apparent.”

Bellefleur of New Gild Jewelers felt the same when construction on Upton Avenue and 43rd Street was extended to October, which could potentially impact holiday shopping. She added that project officials should’ve been present to communicate project delays. “We feel really let down by the city and the Metropolitan Council.”

Council member Payne also acknowledged that communication could always be improved, although effective communication can be difficult to execute. “It’s a really hard balance if you send out too many mailers, people start treating it like junk mail, and they don’t pay attention to it. And if you don’t send out enough mailers, people are like, ‘I never even saw it.’”

Of course, the city isn’t the only government entity leading major construction projects; counties also play a role. Colin Cox, communications manager of Hennepin County, said that public notices for upcoming county construction projects do take place and usually begin a couple of years before any equipment rolls out, whether through signage, mailed notices, or a boots-on-the-ground approach from the engagement team. The intention is to get design input while also putting it on people’s radars. But he acknowledges that it does take some digging, especially if you are unsure which entity is leading the project, whether it’s the city, county, or state.

Government negotiations with local businesses can, at times, turn adversarial. Hennepin County does have the option of exercising eminent domain when needed. The county engages in negotiations with the property owners to acquire the property interests for a project–including appraising that property and providing that appraisal to the landowner–to give appropriate compensation to the landowner, Hennepin County spokeswoman Carolyn Marinan told TCB via email. Landowners can also seek their own appraisals.

But if a landowner refuses to take part in an easement (the right for the county to use a specific area of the property, for a specific time, for a specific purpose related to the project, whether temporarily or permanently), “the county may exercise its power of eminent domain to acquire the necessary property and determine the appropriate compensation through a court proceeding,” she said.

When it comes to business concerns, whether it’s parking issues, receiving deliveries, street access, or more, it’s recommended to reach out to the project officials, said Cox, and early. “All of those are things that we can typically work around, especially in the design phase,” he said. “It becomes way more difficult to do that while you’re in construction, especially to change anything.”

Although Hennepin County endeavors to have a detailed timeline for a construction project wrap-up, external factors like weather or even the soil can extend the project.

“We do our best trying to build out timelines that allow for some flexibility and get the projects done in a timely way, but that’s not always possible to do it,” he said. “We as a county try to make sure that we’re keeping people up to date as soon as we can reliably share some information about [project status].”

For what it’s worth, many business owners understand the need for infrastructure improvements. But they also know spotty communication from government entities can be costly, and, in some cases, fatal to their stores.

“What they could have done, rather than give me a [businesses are still open] sign or even a $10,000 grant, is work together to make sure that this didn’t go down this way,” said Bellefleur.

“We’re not the first neighborhood to get destroyed by this construction. It might be our first time, but it isn’t the county’s or the city’s first time. They could and should have anticipated that all this would happen. It’s a frightening thing.”