St. Paul businesses bank on Grand Avenue reopening

The construction that has snarled St. Paul’s Grand Avenue all summer comes to an end next week — not a moment too soon for business owners eager for more traffic along the commercial thoroughfare.

“It’s been extremely challenging on so many different levels,” Baking Betty’s owner Emily Osterberg said. “The road was torn up, then the sidewalks. Customers are not sure what they should do or where they should park.”

The project between Fairview and Snelling avenues started in April, with the promise of a remade street and sidewalks upon completion, with limited access to the area in the meantime. Some businesses, including Osterberg’s, saw as much as a 50% decline in customer flow or sales. Others shortened their hours or laid off workers to cut costs. One closed.

Lisa Hiebert, St. Paul Public Works spokesperson, said the city has been working closely with businesses to assist them during construction. That includes helping them navigate changes or delays in the work, she said.

“The Fairview-Grand intersection took a lot longer than we anticipated, and we had to adjust the schedule,” she said. When digging starts on a street, “you run into things that you didn’t expect.”

Grand Avenue is scheduled to reopen to pedestrians and cars on Oct. 21.

Construction projects have frustrated many St. Paul drivers over the summer, with Arcade Street also being redone on the East Side. That stretch of Arcade, from Neid Lane to Reaney Avenue, is scheduled for completion in mid-November.

“All the people who were visiting St. Paul events last summer didn’t go on our side of Grand,” she said.

Roseline’s Place opened between Macalester and Cambridge streets in January 2024. Friedrich said the construction was inevitable, but her customers struggled to get to the business when street closures changed weekly. She said she will miss “being part of the tapestry” of the neighborhood but is glad hers was the only business to close during construction.

The $6.7 million Grand Avenue project is the first to be partly paid for by the 1% sales tax voters approved in 2023 to fix aging streets. The project added new underground utilities and foundations for the first time in 70 years. The city will reconstruct other parts of Grand Avenue over the next few years, Hiebert said.

Some finishing touches and clean-up are expected into the fall and spring.

Damla Erten , vice president of development at Sencha Tea Bar, said the construction in front of the shop was manageable. The summer season is slower without the nearby colleges in session, she said, so the business took advantage of the road construction to retile their kitchen. Sencha is also adding more lighting outside.

Other businesses, like Baking Betty’s, focused on larger catering orders or online sales.

The city of St. Paul tried to help, too, by organizing the Grand Avenue Construction Crawl, when businesses across the construction zone offered discounts. But Andy Fein, owner of Fein Violins, said no one used the event coupon at his business.

Fein, whose shop has been on Grand Avenue since 1982, said the foot traffic that made up 20% of his business has been “nonexistent” since April. As the worst of the construction comes to an end, Fein said he hopes Grand’s businesses survive.