Officials still want to hear concerns
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on December 28, 2014 1:50 AM
Attention downtown business owners affected by Streetscape. City Manager Scott Stevens hears your concerns -- and he would like to hear more.
Stevens is asking those who are battling the effects of the downtown revitalization project to speak up and to let him know how the city can help them weather the construction storm.
"I haven't heard anything of significance from business owners directly," Stevens said. "I have heard it from others, but not from business owners directly. I appreciate their patience, and we want them to talk to us so we can help them in whatever ways we can."
The second phase of Streetscape, which began in August, is set to be completed by November 2015 and is slightly ahead of schedule, Stevens said.
When spring comes, business owners in the northbound lane of Center Street will see a reprieve from negative effects on their bottom line as the project moves to the northern side of Center Street and their storefronts cease to be blocked by fencing and construction.
"My hope is that it won't be many more months before the pressure eases up on these business owners downtown," Stevens said. "I'm certainly compassionate about the lost revenue for these businesses, but I think they'll see better sales overall once everything is done."
Stevens said downtown Goldsboro has hosted events regularly throughout the Streetscape project in an attempt to draw attention and bring people to downtown businesses.
"We want to do everything we can to remind people that downtown businesses are still there," he said. "We encourage business owners to remind their customer base about their presence."
Stevens said the city can do everything short of paying business owners' rent for them and paying for sales lost because of Streetscape. He said the city can advertise for businesses or implement any ideas business owners have to improve their situation.
"Some people might argue that we should make up the difference in lost sales, but we don't do that," the city manager said. "I don't think we have a legal responsibility to do that. The other side of that argument is that when businesses begin profiting from improvements made by Streetscape they should share a portion of their profits with us, but that's not going to happen either."