“Project Downtown Pullman” has continued through the summer and business owners are looking forward to a return to students in town.
The project officially began on April 1, according to an article from the Evergreen, and has a target completion date of October 1.
A recent update from the city on the project from the official website was released on August 5. The update said the water infrastructure has been activated and road grading work is proceeding as planned.
“With sub-surface infrastructure installed, last week the contractor began roadway excavation and sub-grade prep on Main Street between Grand Avenue and Kamiaken Street,” the update said. “This work will result in a slight modification of Main Street’s elevation to ensure better stormwater drainage and collection.”
The project officially reached the halfway point in July, according to an article from Moscow-Pullman Daily News. While the project has run into issues, the target completion date is unchanged since the beginning.
Multiple small business owners have expressed concerns about the project to the city council, but many business owners approve of how the city has gone about construction. Rico’s Pub Owner Tawny Szumlas said she has been happy with the city’s communication with business owners during the construction.
“I don’t think it has for everybody but I respond to all the emails sent and try to talk to the people that you should be talking to like our downtown coordinator and the chamber of commerce,” Szumlas said. “I try to make sure that I’m in the loop.”
While the construction has been overall well handled, there has been a noticeable drop in business during the summer, she said.
“We’re down about 25%,” Szumlas said. “Summertime with our outdoor seating is actually the busiest time of the year for us. So we actually took the 25% off at a loss at a time that was normally very very very busy.”
There are not a lot of people in the downtown area at the moment, Szumlas said. There are usually no cars, no lights and few people wandering around.
Despite these issues, overall the construction has been well handled, she said. While there have been problems, things have gone about as well as they could have.
“Almost everything has gone very well,” Szumlas said. “We’ve been treated very well. I don’t think this was ever going to be ideal but it needed to happen.”
Poppy Salon owner Rach Gonzales said this project is necessary since the problems with downtown have directly affected businesses.
“I know a couple different business owners were having sewage backing up into their buildings from the tree roots that were growing so I know it was a necessary project. I don’t think there would be any good time to do it,” Gonzales said. “Downtown struggles no matter what. Summer might seem like a good idea because there’s less foot traffic, but I know it’s driven down even more traffic for a lot of business owners.”
Gonzales said during the summer, the construction has changed as the crew has now tore into the sidewalk in front of Etsy Bravo without telling anybody they were going to. However, overall communication during the construction has been good.
“Mallory Nash spearheaded a lot of it and I think she’s been doing a good job trying to get small business owners into the committees and stuff,” she said. “But I think if you’re not in a volunteer committee there’s a little less information out there unless you’re specifically looking for it.”
Poppy Salon has seen a decline in business over the summer, but it has been impacted less than other businesses probably have, as their online booking system requires less foot traffic than other businesses, she said.
Now that the fall semester is close, business owners have hope more people in town will mean more business. Gonzales said she believes the period of increased business has already begun.
“I think WSU did a great job, they have their sorority rush week and new student orientation a lot earlier in the summer than they typically do,” she said. “I think that’s brought students back a little earlier and Poppy has seen some increase because of that.”
Once the project is complete, Gonzales said she hopes there will be more parking, especially for those who work downtown. In addition, more places for people to hang out would be nice as well.
“I have to give a huge shoutout to a lot of downtown businesses. I know they’ve been working really really hard with the Friday Night Market and different themed events to try to get people downtown and I know they’ve been doing that without the help of the city so that’s great that they’ve been planning all those things,” she said. “I’m really hopeful that maybe construction will be done before late fall so football season hits and we get a little bit more business.”
