Some Tooele City Main Street business owners aren’t sure how much longer they can keep their doors open while the state works to finish the roadway’s reconstruction.
Business owners that responded to a Nov. 3 survey by the Tooele County Chamber of Commerce and Tourism said their revenue had declined since the SR-36 Renewed project started on Main Street last June.
However, data from the Utah State Tax Commission shows that taxable retail sales throughout Tooele City surpassed 2014 during the months of June, July and August.
The number of business owners who noted the revenue decline was 23 out of 43 — or 53 percent.
“We have lost enough of our revenue that we may face foreclosure and bankruptcy if it continues,” wrote one unidentified business owner on the chamber’s survey. The survey did not identify the names of any of the businesses that responded.
But 13 business owners said they have not seen a decline in revenue during Main Street’s reconstruction. Seven owners did not respond to the question about revenue impact.
The amount of the decline ranged from 5 percent to 80 percent among the 23 businesses that experienced a decline in revenue. The median decline was 20 percent.
Chad Fulmer, owner of Denny’s Restaurant at 925 N. Main Street, said revenue for his business has been down 25-30 percent consistently since reconstruction began.
The only access to Denny’s is from Main Street.
“People are changing their habits,” Fulmer said. “They’re not driving down Main Street anymore. They avoid it.”
Even when they do drive on Main Street, they still may not have been able to get into Denny’s, he said. The driveway from Main Street into Denny’s was blocked 15 times during the construction, according to Fulmer.
“Only twice did I get advance notice that the driveway would be closed,” he said. “A couple of times, I would come out and find a construction truck or some other piece of equipment blocking the driveway. I would have to track down a construction worker or call UDOT and hope it would get moved.”
With Main Street being a state highway, the $25.5 million SR-36 Renewed is a Utah Department of Transportation project.
More than once, Denny’s driveway was blocked on Saturday morning, ordinarily the busiest time for the restaurant, according to Fulmer.
The decline in revenue not only affects Fulmer’s bottom line and the city’s sales tax revenue, it also reduced income for his staff.
“I had to cut back hours,” he said. “And then you have staff that depends on tips sitting in an empty restaurant. It’s hard to keep good workers when that happens.”
Fulmer said he’s lived through other construction projects, but this was the worst.
“I knew what to expect, but it took longer than it should have and the contractor appeared to disregard businesses,” he said.
Although the construction is a UDOT project, Fulmer said he believes the city could have been a better advocate for businesses.
Tooele City Mayor Patrick Dunlavy said that he has been meeting weekly with UDOT officials during the construction process. During meetings, he passed on concerns expressed by local businesses and citizens.
“While SR-36 runs the heart of our business district and it is Tooele City’s Main Street, Main Street is not the city’s street — it belongs to UDOT,” Dunlavy said. “Prior to the contract for the work being let, UDOT was very cordial and open, but after work started, it was difficult to have an influence.”
Roger Prows owns two Main Street businesses, Rock Star Pets and the Nerd Store, at 215 and 213 N. Main Street.
“I had a customer turn at a ‘business access’ sign on Main Street to get into one of my stores,” Prows said. “The car dropped over a three-foot ledge and was damaged. There’s general gridlock out there on Main Street. People don’t want to drive on Main Street and at times there’s no way to get across Main Street.”
“I believe the impact on businesses was because the project was grossly mismanaged,” Prows said. “Promises made by UDOT, such as never closing adjacent intersections on Main Street, weren’t kept.”
Kenny Gregrich, owner of GSI Pawn Shop at 324 N. Main, is pleased that after months of construction, he now has a new paved entrance from Main Street.
“We paid to have an entrance put in off of Garden Street,” he said. “We have two driveways from Main Street. We were told they wouldn’t close both of them at the same time, but they did.”
Before the pavement was replaced and a new driveway installed for GSI, contractors put in a steep ramp from Main Street that lead into the GSI parking lot.
“Customers didn’t like it. They complained to us,” Gregrich said. “During the construction, we didn’t have people coming in to browse like we used to.”
Gregrich said he still wonders why the road in front of his business was torn up for seven weeks, while further north on Main Street businesses only had to endure a week of torn-up pavement before the road was repaved.
However, not every business owner was distraught by the construction.
“The construction has been difficult, but fortunately we have been able to work around it,” wrote one business owner on the chamber’s survey.
“Overall, the short time of difficulty will be well worth the improvements,” wrote another.
Although some business owners said they have suffered revenue loss from SR-36 Renewed, shoppers did find ways to spend money in Tooele City, according to the Utah State Tax Commission.
During the summer months of June, July and August, taxable retail sales in Tooele City were up 6.7 percent, 8.7 percent, and 0.71 percent, respectively, compared to the same months in 2014.
Taxable retail sales data for September and October is not available at this time.
One respondent to the chamber’s survey said their revenue was up.
“Because we are located away from the construction and our competitors are in the middle of it, we have seen an increase in customers not wanting to fight the traffic,” they wrote on the survey.
UDOT spokesperson John Gleason said that some impact to local businesses was impossible to avoid during SR-36 Renewed.
“We’re talking a major rebuild here, not just a quick patch job,” he said. “Keeping SR-36 open for traffic and business access had challenges. We did our best to minimize those impacts and get the work done as quickly a possible and get out of the way.”
Some Main Street businesses are hoping for a busy holiday shopping season to bring their customers back to their stores.
“In my experience, sales at the beginning of November is always slow,” Prows said. “It’s kind of the lull before the storm.”