Has Early TZ Bridge Work Boosted Tarrytown Business?

Brian Conybeare, spokesperson for the New NY Bridge project (as shown in this video clip attached), recently told the press that he had encountered many local business owners happy with an uptick in sales because of preconstruction work underway.

So I set out to visit a few food shops in Tarrytown's Bridge Plaza, closest to the entrance of the Tappan Zee Bridge and bridge office headquarters at 303 South Broadway. Opinions on whether business had risen (and why) were mixed among several deli owners and employees. What they did agree on: more business would certainly come.

While employees manning the front stations of Bagel Emporium and Tappan Zee Deli thought business had definitely improved since bridge work began in earnest in the spring their bosses attributed that to a usual seasonal resurgence.

The owners of the deli and the bagel shop took a more long-term stance. They were optimistic that business would be picking up later in the year as more barges, and more workers, arrived. (Now Conybeare says there about two dozen workers on the river itself, with several hundreds more at work in other capacities.)

"It's getting really busy," said one employee of the Bagel Emporium. She estimated as much as a 30 percent increase in sales since the beginning of spring, with the hours of 8 a.m. to noon being their "rush hour."

However, shop owner Michael Rozins, who owns a handful of Bagel Emporiums throughout the county (Armonk, Chappaqua, White Plains, formerly Ossining), said there's much more pressure in Tarrytown to do better as his rent here is twice as high.

"I haven't seen anything really," Rozins said about any alleged increase in sales. He hopes the higher rent here compared to his other locations -- a "crazy number" -- is "reflective" of the increased business to come with the bridge rebuild. He also recalls the time when the whole plaza was slated to be razed for a previous version of the project.

Joyce Nam, owner of the aptly named Tappan Zee Deli, seemed to agree that business was up some seasonally but "but not from the bridge; a little bit of people."

Her employee Gustav Bodor was certain of the opposite. "I think so, yes, many workers come in," he said.

So the verdict is out and only time, or final accounting, will tell.

This complex must certainly better off with a CVS installed than with an empty grocery store. But the space next door to the CVS that was supposed to be rented out by plaza owner Stop & Shop to a small produce store by now, still sits empty.

Rozins said he heard a potential tenant, an Asian market, backed out because the rent was too high.

Are you a small business owner locally who's felt a positive effect from the TZB already? Share here.