Downtown Concord has been thrown into chaos during two years of streetscape construction, meant to attract visitors and increase foot traffic. In the meantime, the area’s small businesses have been feeling the pinch of fewer customers.
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[Music] M [Music] Are we reopening the road Today we Are and Matthew kensaw we're currently At Buzz City games uh in downtown Concord and uh as far as the Construction goes our event attendance Isn't down but our inore sales are Definitely down by about 20 to 25% Especially since they closed our Intersection down and it's just Generally harder to get around so foot Traffic is down but our regular are Still coming so we're still in pretty Good [Music] Business as they were pushing in and Digging they ended up what busting I Think they busted a line that caused a Lot of standing water in our basement And it flooded it I would say Probably 6 in worth of just sitting Water and you know it was basically Anything that was on the floor was just Flooded and totally ruined thankfully Nothing too valuable so I'm Ashley Howell on the lens Studio at 70 Union Street South um I signed my lease in December of 2022 um had my grand opening the last Weekend in January 2023 um signed my lease knowing that
There was going to be a downtown Street Skate project um great wonderful um but They were supposed to be starting on the Opposite side of the street so what I Found out was 2 days before for my first Event which was in March of 2023 um they Were going to be closing the street down By me um and I had a chain link events Go up then like 2 days before my event So we made it through the event and we Kept doing popup markets and different Private events were still booked during That whole time but literally have lived With a chain link fence for probably Over 10 months or more um the chain Ling Fence didn't come down until the end of This winter so one once that happened it Seemed a lot more open a lot more free Um down by us we now have only orange Fencing so um I was always a big fan of Orange but Orange has since become not My favorite color because there's a lot Of orange fence a lot of orange Barricades all great signs that progress Is being made but um nonetheless a lot Of orange and a lot of orange clay so I'm Robin Angel and my husband and I are The owners of seller door wine shop here In downtown k Um we've only been open since the very End of January so um we're still very New at the business very new to the Downtown but we Knew when we opened what we were getting
Into as far as the construction we knew It would move up to our end as soon as We open the door which is literally what Happened um and so we expected to have Some issues um you know with foot Traffic and things like that during our First year or so in operations and you Know it we've definitely seen some Impacts but overall um you know we're We're very fortunate to be on the corner And to be able to have access for folks Hey my name is Sheila Wilson and I'm a Bartender here at the local bottle shop On Union Street in Concord um we opened In May so the construction was already Started that's all we really know so but Business has been good the community has Been very um positive with us and um we' Started develop a good clientele and Working with a lot of the other Businesses um we can't wait till the Construction's done so we can get all The great benefits from it we've already Started receiving great benefits from The social districting um we do a lot of Events from trivia night to um brunches Yoga even in some mornings uh so that's Been bringing in a lot of people and a Lot of different people um so just keep It in contact with the community and Having a good um you know event process Has really helped our business and you Just kind of got to put up with the Construction for a little bit but it's
It's really great they have this opened Up today yeah so the comparison be [Music]