St. Paul businesses welcome the reopening of Grand Avenue

Part of Grand Avenue will reopen Tuesday after five months of road construction that halted some retailers’ lines.

The city will hold a celebration from 4 to 6 p.m., marking the reopening of the area — Grand Avenue between Macalister and Wheeler streets.

Jennifer Gordon is the Director of Operations at French Meadow Bakery & Café located at Grand and Macalester Street South. The summer months with road construction outside the restaurant “were not ideal,” she said.

“We had a lack of business — customers not wanting to either go through the chaos or not being able to figure out how to get through it,” Gordon said. “It’s been difficult.”

One company, Roslyn Candles, did not survive construction. They closed on August 31st.

She said the busiest time at the café is summer. The silver lining, she said, was sitting in French Meadow’s backyard away from construction.

“When people arrived, they were still having a great experience in our backyard. But it was just getting people here,” Gordon said.

Gordon says business has picked up in the past two weeks. Some companies prepared for the worst and were pleasantly surprised.

Scott Faris is the co-owner of independent art supply store Wet Paint. The store, located at the corner of Cambridge Street and Grand Avenue, has been around for 50 years, Faris said.

He said he thought the project would be disastrous for the business, but the art supplies on offer and the store’s location helped.

"“When they come into an art supply store, they’ve already set their navigation system to come to us and they only have to navigate the last block or two, they’re less likely to turn around and go to another art supply store,” Faris said."

Fares also said that North and South streets remained open.

“We’re on the right corner, so our customers only have to navigate that last block,” he said. “We have a small parking lot in the back, which helps with where to park when they come to see us.”

Fares also says the city has been communicating with him during the project.