Business owners near a Seattle Public Utilites (SPU) project at 12th Avenue and Pike Street, are claiming they got a very short notice, or none at all, about th
Business owners near a Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) project at 12th Avenue and Pike Street are claiming they got very short notice, or none at all, about the project beginning this past week - and are worried that the closure and missing parking spaces will hurt much-needed summer revenue.
SPU began work on a $6.4 million sewer rehabilitation project at the intersection on Monday, August 17, with business owners reporting they were told it will take about six weeks.
"We reached about 50 businesses that Thursday [August 13] before, and hardly anyone had heard about the project or understood the impact," explained Erin Reinhart, the founder of "Circle the Blocks," a community-oriented group for the Capitol Hill neighborhood.
She claims that from her research, the utility has known about the project for eight years, before arranging for work to happen this year.
"They've had ample time to follow their own policy of notification of problem mitigation, reaching out to the businesses, the residents in this neighborhood, and making sure that all of this was taken care of long before," added Reinhart.
However, it's the business owners who are most upset, stating that they've already noticed a decrease in business since the construction began on Aug. 17.
“We've had a significant amount of cancellations and reservations when people realize that there's further construction in this area; they just avoid the area," explained Sabrina Tinsley, the Executive Chef and co-owner of Osteria La Spiga, which has been at its Capitol Hill location on 12th Avenue for 20 years. She said she got one week's notice from her landlord about the project.
Howard Russell, just across the street from Tinsley, has a different story.
"I did not hear about this project," he said when asked point blank. Russell opened La Cha-Bliss Wines a little over a year ago.
"The noise was so loud that people would not come in or they wouldn't sit down, " he explained about his workday on Tuesday, "and so it did disrupt the business, especially this whole week has disrupted the business for that reason."
Kaleigh Wilson owns the unique and quirky bar "The Unicorn" along Pike Street next to the intersection. She says the only reason she knew about the sewer project was that there was a Phase One of sorts in April.
"This giant piece of machinery was in front of our front door; we had no warning about what was happening, no notification, the sidewalks were completely blocked off, the street was blocked off. And that's how initially we figured it out," she stated.
For almost three weeks, Wilson says their trash and recycling area was also blocked, leaving their grease disposal, waste, and more on site.
Now, she's hopeful Phase Two only lasts the reported six weeks.
“Every business in this area depends on the summer to make their revenue to supplement for the slow season," she said, “If we don't have the weekends to float the rest of the week, we are done in the water. We had a fire last year. We were closed for three months. So we have been hobbling along this entire year," she added.
Others like Tinsley felt it could be even more dire.
"It kind of breaks my heart," the long-time restaurateur said, "I foresee some businesses not being able to make it."
This same collection of businesses also claims that they had to work with the Greater Seattle Business Association to get the city to post numerous "Businesses Are Open" signs in the area near and approaching the impacted intersection.
"Putting signs up is like the bare minimum, and it should be something that we shouldn't have to ask for," Tinsely said.
It's this series of events that leaves newer small business owners like Howard Russell disappointed.
"Seattle claims that they want to support small businesses. This is not a way of supporting small businesses at all," he said.
KOMO News reached out to Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle Department of Transportation on Saturday afternoon after hearing the concerns and claims made by those in the area.
An SDOT spokesperson directed our questions back to SPU, from whom we are still awaiting a response as of Saturday night.
