Many businesses throughout Spokane and Spokane Valley say they have faced challenges in maintaining sales and customer traffic amid a number of large-scale street repair projects across the metro area.

Several of those projects have required road closures or significant lane restrictions that have limited motorists' access to businesses along them. Major projects taking place in the city of Spokane include ongoing work to rehabilitate Second Avenue downtown, as well as work on portions of Mission Avenue, Nevada Street, Wellesley Avenue, and Grand Boulevard. Additionally, the repaving of the Indiana Avenue and Sullivan Road intersection is affecting access to nearby businesses in Spokane Valley.

Deena Moe-Caruso, owner of Finders Keepers Jewelry Galore, located at 309 W. Second, says her business has been hurt by the ongoing street work on Second, but that she's taken steps to try to counteract some of the negative effects of construction.

"We have been proactive in this neighborhood with road construction," Moe-Caruso says. "I attended the meeting the city had on Open for Business and learned a lot about what they had to say as far as preparing scripts for staff on how to get here, keeping customers informed, and doing things to get people in."

Earlier this year, the city of Spokane's business and development services department offered a free workshop, called Open for Business: Making the Best of Rough Road Construction, targeted at businesses that would be affected by extensive street projects. The workshop included tips to maintain sales and customer traffic during road construction that could limit access to a business.

Moe-Caruso says she leased a billboard about a block away from her store that advises customers on how to get to more accessible parking off Third Avenue on the back side of the store. She says she's also kept in touch with about 5,000 of her store's customers via email, updating them on the status of the project and the best alternate routes to her store as construction progresses.

She estimates, however, that the business has lost about $100,000 worth of sales opportunities this summer due to the street project, which began in March and is expected to continue through mid-September.

She says that despite that loss in sales, she's been able to cover the business's overhead expenses and didn't have to lay off any employees. Moe-Caruso says that before construction began, she experienced some employee turnover and didn't rehire to fill those positions because she'd anticipated the construction's influence on sales.

Another business on Second that's also faced challenges after crews began tearing up the street is aNeMonE Handmade Paper Flowers, located next door to Finders Keepers and also at 309 W. Second. Owners Nathan and Mary Eberle opted to close their store there in late June and advised customers to come to their business's other location, in River Park Square, while the road work was under way.

"We were lucky if one person walked through," Mary Eberle says of the first couple months the street project was underway.

aNeMonE's Second Avenue store is planned to reopen in September once construction has wrapped up, she says.

Eberle and Moe-Caruso say that they and a core group of other businesses located on that Second Avenue corridor—part of Spokane's SoDo District—are planning with the city of Spokane a grand reopening event on Sept. 24, after construction work has wrapped up.

In East Spokane, another locally-owned business that's been hampered by an ongoing street repair project is Cassano's Grocery LLC, located at 2002 E. Mission. Currently, Mission between Napa and Greene streets is closed to traffic while the city installs a new water main and repaves the roadway. That overall project, which included two other phases between Hamilton Street and Napa that since have been completed, is expected to wrap up late next month.

Carl Naccarato, owner of Cassano's, says his business has been impacted in some ways by the street closure, although because it's located at the corner of Mission and Napa, customers have been able to get to his store from Napa.

Naccarato estimates that sales have been down by 8 percent since construction started, but says one thing that's helped the business is the large number of customers who walk there from the Chief Garry neighborhood surrounding his store.

"We are lucky we are selling food and it's vital to the neighborhood, and it's a neighborhood where many people don't have cars or transportation, so they have really supported us," he says.

Naccarato adds that he has cut some of his 15 employees' hours somewhat, but he's also opted to keep the grocery store open on Sundays—a day it's normally closed—to help make up for lost sales during the road work. He did, however, decide to close for the summer the Mission Bistro, a restaurant he owns located in the same building as the store, because of the construction's impact on its sales.

Like the business owners on Second Avenue, Naccarato says the Chief Garry neighborhood association became actively involved in the Mission project when it was announced last year.

"We started communicating and meeting regularly last winter," Naccarato says. "Everyone got involved, both business- and residential-wise, in following the progress and the plans the city had ... we had a good idea of where things were going and at times didn't agree, but the city was more than cooperative in meeting with us."

Naccarato says the neighborhood association asked the city to break up the street work into phases so it wouldn't impact business located on that stretch of Mission for as long as if that entire stretch of Mission was closed at the same time. He says he and other area business owners continue to meet weekly with city representatives and the project's contractor, Halme Construction Inc., of Davenport, to stay up to date on the work's status.

In Spokane Valley, a project to replace the asphalt intersection of Indiana and Sullivan with a concrete surface also is having an impact on access to businesses located in the vicinity. The highly traveled intersection is located just east of the Spokane Valley Mall.

A Krispy Kreme doughnut shop located at the northwest corner of the intersection, at 15401 E. Indiana, has seen a slight decrease in sales as a result of the project, and its employees also have received some negative feedback from customers about having to take a longer route to the store, says Steve Newton, the shop's general manager.

Newton says, however, that the store's bulk sales of doughnuts that groups can purchase to resell for fundraising events have helped to ease the effects of the construction on its revenue.

To keep businesses and motorists informed of the intersection work, the city of Spokane Valley is sending regular project updates via email as work progresses. The city also compiled several maps showing various stages of the project and the subsequent detours, says city spokeswoman Carolbelle Branch.

"Because the folks east of Sullivan on Indiana had access that was going to change depending on the phase of construction, we created a mailer with detailed descriptions and diagrams specific to them," Branch says. "Then we went in person to each of the businesses on the east side of the intersection on Indiana and personally handed that information to them."

Before construction began, the city held an open house and distributed about 2,800 informational fliers, Branch says.

Representatives from the cities of Spokane and Spokane Valley say that while many of the area's streets and roads need to be improved, and construction-related impacts can't be avoided, they've made an effort to aid businesses affected by such projects.

As part of the city of Spokane's Open for Business initiative, businesses affected by road work can access a "survival guide" on its website that contains tips intended to help lessen the impact of road construction and resources for business owners to stay up to date on projects.

"There's not a way to not have an impact," says city spokeswoman Marlene Feist. "There are days where it's difficult to get to businesses, and we know that will impact their revenue, so what we're trying to do is to help them as much as we can to get customers there."

The city's road construction survival guide offers suggestions such as how to prepare early on for a long-term street project, how to retain customer traffic during that project, and ways to ramp up business once a project is finished.

Like the city of Spokane, Spokane Valley also offers businesses an informational packet on its website that contains tips on how to deal with ongoing road construction.