Merchants Suffer From Construction, Traffic And Parking Woes;
Will There Be Healing During The Holidays?
by Phil Kummer
Delirious development plus the University-Josephine storm sewer system and street project through Cherry Creek are aimed at creating a rebirth of this upscale area. Yet after suffering through nearly a year of parking and traffic turmoil plus shopping setbacks there are a few signs of healing as the holiday season draws near.
Furthermore, the half-built building boom has businesses seeing mounting monetary scars while some have abandoned the area altogether. “Often it has been easier to spot cranes soaring overhead than shoppers on the streets and in stores,” said Beth Saper of Little Feet, the family-owned footwear fashions store for kids located in The Plaza at Cherry Creek on the west side of University Blvd. Many local businesses have been impacted and the rippling effect goes beyond the area bounded by 1st and 3rd Avenues and University to Steele Streets or the Cherry Creek Shopping Center.
Hayley Morris, store manager of Ten Thousand Villages — a national non-profit that promotes artisans from around the world — says that construction has impacted sales. “Foot traffic, which is critical to the store, is down 25 percent compared to before construction,” she reveals. Due to the resulting loss of business the store, located on 3rd Ave. next to the 250 Columbine construction project, has increased store hours is are now open on Sunday. They also organized a fundraiser — Art for Artisans — to recoup some of the lost revenue from previous months. Hayley is hopeful nonetheless that during November and December customers will return for the holiday shopping.
Busting Business
The Cherry Creek Whole Foods store sandwiched between the University-Josephine projects began feeling the effects last February. Due to a dramatic revenue drop, 50 employees were transferred to other stores or in some cases chose to leave the company. Sharon Wilkinson, the store’s Greater Denver Area Marketing Team Leader, gives the Cherry Creek North Business Improvement District high marks for setting up meetings with the city and in particular with Mayor Michael Hancock at the beginning of the infrastructure project. Those meetings resulted in certain noise restrictions being lifted to allow for a quicker construction pace. Even so, the length of the project and the decline in sales has been tough on Whole Foods.
The ongoing construction has not only had an impact on businesses within Cherry Creek North and at the Shopping Center, but extends to small businesses along 6th Ave. Arv Singh, owner of the 7-Eleven convenience store at 6th Ave. and Columbine, has noticed a drop of perhaps 22 percent in revenue. Singh is making every effort to retain his nine employees. “We’re giving supplementary employee training plus doubling our marketing effort to realize the most business from each customer visit.” He nonetheless thinks about how the City might have been of more help to the small business owner, possibly with bridge loans or a tax forgiveness program.
Mathnasium, a math tutoring business also located on 6th Ave., has seen revenues shrink more than 20 percent in the past few months. Owner Bernard Doughit echoes Arv Singh, speculating that the city could have reached out to small businesses that don’t have the resources of large corporations.
Happy Holidays?
Since the 1950s the intersection of First Ave. and University Blvd. has been the foremost roadway into this premier shopping district. The biggest roadway closure ever attempted by the City shut down the intersection for 60 hours from Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. until reopening on Sept. 23 at 7 a.m. The closure brought business in the district to a screeching halt and created colossal traffic jams. Little Feet’s Beth Saper said the mayor and City held a meeting with storeowners prior to the shutdown promising a marketing plan. However, she quickly adds, “There was never any follow-through whatsoever.”
The closure, approved by Mayor Hancock, was an attempt to accelerate the paving of the intersection and move up the overall project reconstruct by 24 days. Furthermore the Public Works’ University-Josephine storm sewer project jumped ahead of schedule by three weeks, “We’ve definitely seen increased traffic to our store since the partial reopening of the roadway in October,” Saper reports. The goal of the shutdown was to allow an early start to Cherry Creek’s holiday shopping season. In late October area businesses were still holding their breath, hoping the project will be completed by the projected completion date of Nov. 1.
Even if the First Ave. and University project is fully completed in time to save Christmas, neither businesses nor shoppers can look in their rearview mirrors. Fact is the hefty rebuild of Cherry Creek North has only just begun. By the time the block-long 250 Columbine project is finished next year, across the street the seven-story, 150 room luxury hotel at 245 Columbine will just be getting underway.
Makeover Madness
The intersection of First Ave. and Steele St. is going through an equally implausible makeover. On the same corner as the 1st and Steele Apartments, there are two other major projects currently under construction: 12-story apartment building, the Steele Creek Apartments, and an 8-story office building, 100 Saint Paul. That’s 149,000 square feet of new office space and 435 residential units being added to just one intersection. Ground has just recently been broken for the Steele Creek Apartments.
Finally, mid-next year when the work is completed in front of the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, the gateway to Cherry Creek North — Clayton Lane — may again endure redevelopment. As reported by the Chronicle last month, the owner of 7.7 acres of the development site is considering redevelopment options and hired the original architect — David Tryba — to consider development options. The project is generally between East 1st and 2nd Avenues, Detroit and Josephine St.
What is impressive about Cherry Creek small businesses that have so far survived is their determination to reach out to customers in creative ways and to not give up even when the cards seem stacked against them. So when stuck in traffic or you can’t find a parking space and are ready to scream, remember that retailers in the area are feeling the pain even more. These merchants have nowhere to turn and are doing everything they can with hopes of eventually enjoying the improvements that are causing their distress.
What the future holds for Cherry Creek retailers is a matter of debate. Some store owners are hoping that the significant number of upscale apartment buildings and other new developments will result in a large client base to shop and eat in Cherry Creek. Others fear that the lack of any traffic planning or improvements coupled with a minimum number of parking spaces required by the city for the new developments will destroy the area as a retail destination for those who do not live or work in Cherry Creek.
For many of the smaller retailers they are just hoping a successful Christmas season will allow them to survive after a year of constant challenges caused them by the city and by what they view as a chaotic and haphazard planning and development process for the area.