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South Philly corridor anxious for completed construction
A small business corridor in South Philadelphia survived the pandemic, but is now dealing with lingering road work challenging business sales.
SOUTH PHILADELPHIA - East Passyunk is once again a thriving small business corridor after surviving mass shutdowns during the pandemic. But, a different challenge has hit the area – Philadelphia city construction.
"Our roads have been ripped up for about six weeks now, beginning Memorial Day weekend. It’s definitely been a drop in sales in June, July is usually a slow month for everybody, but it’s another kick in the gut feeling." said Kristina Gaglianese.
Gaglianese opened her boutique clothing store for women, August Moon, two years ago and says construction has been a negative impact on business in the same way as COVID impacted businesses, with data to prove it.
"Even my reporting statistics show that I have more returning customers and less new customers in the last month, which just tells me there’s less tourism," Gaglianese explained.
Rebecca O’Leary is the Director with East Passyunk Avenue Business Improvement District and says efforts to get communication from the city has been frustrating.
"We really wish that we just knew what was going on, so we could tell our clients and constituents," O’Leary stated. "Our businesses - Stogie Joe's, Flannel – have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in business."
FOX 29 reached out to the city to see what exactly is the hold up. Chief highway engineer, Steve Lorenz, says paving will officially begin by the end of the week. "If everything goes well, we’ll be out tomorrow. If not, definitely Friday. I’d say two to three days to pave, because it starts down at Broad and McKean, Juniper. That area and it goes up Tasker."
O’Leary is hopeful it will get done, but the construction caused the cancelation of a major festival and she won’t let it cancel another. "First Inaugural East Passyunk Music Festival on September 10th. If I have to pave the streets myself, I will do that because we are going to have that event and it’s going to be spectacular!"
Find many more businesses at the East Passyunk Avenue Business Improvement District website.