Lake Orion Business Owners Have Advice for Rochester's Downtown District

After three months of construction, downtown Lake Orion is slowly being put back together again.

As part of the village’s $2 million streetscape project, the downtown district underwent a major face-lift starting in late March; the work cut off much access to the historic district and forced business owners to get creative in bringing people to their shops and restaurants.

In the aftermath, some of those business owners offered advice for those in downtown Rochester, who will be immersed in a similar environment next summer when a Main Street Makeover project closes downtown.

Their words of wisdom: Stay informed and ask questions.

End of construction 'bittersweet'

Lloyd Coe, owner of Ed's Broadway Gift & Costume, said the completion of the downtown construction in Lake Orion last week marked the beginning of the end of a struggling season.

Coe said he experienced lower sales as construction equipment rocked his storefront "like an earthquake" while the roads and sidewalks to his shop were torn up.

In the middle of it all, he took an impromptu vacation to Florida to visit his 88-year-old mother and had the store operate on limited hours.

"Everyone is happy that it has reopened," he said. "But it is a bittersweet thing because we have lost a lot of money over the last two months."

Coe said his sales dropped 30 percent to 50 percent during the three-month construction period.

His advice to business owners in Rochester? Be as involved as possible in public meetings centered on the construction efforts and plans, he said. Coe said he wishes he could have provided input to his village's leaders earlier.

"If I owned a building in downtown Rochester, I would go to every meeting and ask a lot of questions," he said.

Advice: Keep customers in the loop

Kathy McDonough, house manager of CJ's Sandbar in downtown Lake Orion, said she lost approximately 15 percent to 30 percent of her customers during construction.

Decreased revenue meant the restaurant had to cut wait staff and reduce hours dramatically — especially during the day, which she said was tough for the wait staff, who needed to work days to support their family.

McDonough advised business owners in Rochester to keep informing their customers about what's next. Due to the chaotic construction, she said customers often didn’t know how to get inside.

"It was messy," she said. "Our regulars came to visit us, but for the new people — it was hard to get in."

Rochester already preparing

Starting next March in Rochester, a $4 million reconstruction project will close Main Street from University to Second streets.

The project is a necessary repair to the deterioration of Main Street caused by truck traffic. According to the Michigan Department of Transportation, problems with underlying bricks shifting during the heavy truck traffic are causing rutting, which pools water during rainstorms and causes ice during the winter.

When the project is finished, it will include energy-efficient streetscape lighting, stamped concrete crosswalks, planters, benches and trees.

So the city is looking at ways to combat the loss of traffic that will bring people downtown.

The Rochester Downtown Development Authority, led by Executive Director Kristi Trevarrow, is working on creative ways to get people to come downtown; there's a plan for a public art project () to be installed next spring.

In the meantime, the city is fixing up back alleyways and helping businesses make their back entrances more inviting through minigrants for signs and other beautification efforts.

Safety, too

McDonough has another piece of advice for business owners — and customers: Watch out for construction-related safety hazards.

During the construction, when the sidewalk was completely torn up, McDonough found that a wobbly wooden plank put near the business entrances, intended to help customers avoid stepping in the unfinished sidewalk, was too dangerous.

Coe stressed the need to keep local leaders honest about the pace, progress and plans in the construction.

This is one of a continuing series of stories on Rochester Patch concerning the Main Street Makeover planned for 2012.