After two years, the construction on Salt Lake City’s 300 West finally wrapped up at the end of July. And starting in 2024, construction will begin on 2100 South from 700 to 1300 East. Long-term construction projects like these have pushed some Salt Lake business owners to make big changes.
Jamaica Trinnaman, owner of Hello! Bulk Markets, said she has been at 1185 South 300 West for almost two years. And for a year and a half of that time, the road outside has been under construction.
When construction began Trinnaman said they found their parking blocked “and instantly [we] dropped in revenue like 30% and never recovered.”
The Salt Lake City Department of Economic Development offers a construction mitigation grant of up to $3,000 to “enhance marketing, promotion, finance to help keep bringing customers into the business,” said project manager Will Wright. It’s an offset for the construction period and is “not intended to replace lost revenue.”
Trinnaman said she applied for the program three times and received $9,000 total but, “that's not enough” since she “lost $9,000 in revenue the first three weeks of the project.”
In order to keep the business afloat, Trinnaman said she had to pick up another job as a small business counselor for the International Rescue Committee, cut back on staff hours and days the store is open as well as offer subleases to other tenants and start a GoFundMe.
Emily Larsen, the owner of the consignment store Home Again, moved her business before having to endure the effects of yearslong construction from the upcoming project on 2100 South.
Larsen’s storefront was formerly in Sugar House along 2100 South, but she moved to a new location in Millcreek after realizing construction would take away business access parking to her store.
“If you can't access my parking, there's no way I can operate a store under those conditions,” she said. “So I knew I needed to make a change.”
Since moving to Highland Drive in April, Larsen said the business was “down $30,000 from last July to this July, just in one month. Usually, I'm hiring at this point. I can't hire, I couldn't even afford to pay myself.”
Larsen moved before applying for the construction mitigation grant.
“You can throw $3,000 at a small business and that's really nice, but it's not going to fix the problem and it's not going to help businesses be there in two to three years when the project ends.”
For Larsen the timeline was simply too long.
“You start telling me it's two years and it's not the end goal that I need. I'm out,” she said.
However, Larsen said even after losing the conveniences of Sugar House there are upsides to her new location such as more parking.
“Security is much better here, I get more space [and] I really do get more space for the money.”
For Trinnaman, she said it will take some time for people to feel confident in coming back to 300 West “because it's got a stigma, it's been ongoing. It's been terribly managed.”
When it comes to increasing the amount of money given to help businesses affected by construction, Wright said “there’s nothing imminent [and] nothing planned currently.” According to the Salt Lake City Department of Economic Development, six areas of Salt Lake City are covered by the grant through fall of 2023.
