With construction fencing set to go up on Palafox Street as soon as Tuesday, the question remains whether Palafox businesses will all be there when the fencing comes down this summer.
The next few months will be a test for downtown businesses looking to attract customers amid the construction zone of the $10.7 million New Palafox project that will upgrade the streets, sidewalks, intersections and stormwater.
The New Palafox project runs from Garden Street to Main Street, and that area closed to vehicle traffic on Jan. 5, but sidewalks will remain open, allowing the public to continue to access businesses.
Among downtown business owners skeptical of the project, the duration of the street closure and the fear it would drive people away was the biggest issue of concern with the project.
Crews wasted no time on Jan. 5 to begin to rip up the curbs along the northernmost block near the Garden Street intersection, with the only barrier to the construction zone a temporary plastic netting hung between traffic barrels.
“We said we’d begin Jan. 5 with speed, and we meant it,” Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves told the News Journal.
The construction contract with Site and Utility LLC carries a 10% incentive bonus to reopen Palafox Street to vehicle traffic by May 24.
“This is why we put an incentive,” Reeves said. “We want deadlines hit. We want to do what we say we’re going to do.”
Palafox Street construction project starts in downtown Pensacola
Watch as construction workers begin to tear up Palafox Street early Monday morning.
The city has also made parking free in the streets surrounding Palafox Street to encourage people to go downtown. And they have hired a marketing agency and added a business directory to the project website, to get the word out that Palafox is open for business.
The construction fencing itself will also act as a promotion for businesses, with directional info to the businesses at each block printed on the fence.
Nathan Holler, owner of The Dog House, was a skeptic of the project in many of the public meetings over the length of the closure, but his business took a creative approach on Jan. 5, offering free hot dogs to workers on the project during the lunch hour.
“We understand the hard work that goes into creating something that will stand the test of time, and we want to show these crews that we’ve got their back,” The Dog House wrote on its Facebook page.
Holler told the News Journal that his business saw “great turnout” during the lunch hour.
“Site and Utility isn’t wasting a spare moment,” Holler said. “A lot of progress has already been made on the street.”
Reeves was one of The Dog House’s lunch customers on Monday, and he said he believes the Pensacola community will come together to support the businesses during the project.
“Growing up in this community — and I know it well enough to know that with any challenge or inconvenience, especially when it’s leading to generation improvement — I would expect nothing less for our community to step up and help our small businesses,” Reeves said.
