Businesses struggle as Flagler Street renovation downtown digs on

Not long before closing for the evening, Charles Zaine stood outside his sporting goods store on East Flagler and couldn’t help but notice what had brought him uncertainty for months – a renovated street in downtown Miami without foot traffic.

The Flagler Street Beautification Project, designed to transform Flagler Street from Biscayne Boulevard to Northwest First Avenue “into an iconic, festival-style boulevard,” is sponsored by the City of Miami’s Office of Capital Improvements in partnership with the Flagler District Business Improvement District (BID) and the Miami Downtown Development Authority.

But the city’s $27 million investment to remodel the East Flagler Street retail corridor has frustrated retailers, Mr. Zaine said.

“It’s very nice, beautiful, but unfortunately, it’s not bringing in no customers, no traffic, people or anything,” said Mr. Zaine, owner of Area Code 305 Sports, 231 E Flagler St.

Construction, which began in May 2021, has been in stages one block at a time, raising the road to the same grade as the sidewalks, changing it to a curb-less street. Two years of construction, however, has forced more than 40 businesses on East Flagler to close, merchants say.

Mr. Zaine said his store has lost revenue as the project demolished roadways and barricaded traffic from East Flagler Street. The city has yet to complete work on all the blocks’ 50-foot roadway lanes, while LED street lighting has been installed on East First Avenue and East Flagler.

Mr. Zaine says sales ranged from $3,000 to $4,000 daily in athletic sneakers and apparel before the project’s fourth stage began on his block in July 2022. Now, those daily earnings have dipped under $1,000 with road closures redirecting vehicles away from East Flagler.

“Everybody sees it as beautiful and is wondering why it’s still not open for the traffic and why the landlords are leaving stores there open,” said Mr. Zaine, whose store shares the block with luggage and souvenir businesses as well as now-vacant commercial retail spaces. “I believe only after they open the street for the cars, then that might bring a little bit more people.”

Sam Victor, owner of Watch Time, a watch sales and repair store at 139 E Flagler, says his store used to have about 28 employees and now has two while construction continues. The store’s lease expires in July.

“Customer retention is way, way down,” said Mr. Victor, who has owned Watch Time for 32 years.

Mr. Victor said he believes he and neighboring store owners will need another two years for businesses to make up for lost revenue.
The DDA delivered stimulus checks of $5,000 to East Flagler Street businesses in December to counter lackluster sales.

Mr. Victor said his monthly rent of $3,000 has been reduced by 75% until the project’s completion, but he refused the DDA’s financial $5,000 stimulus check.

“A lot of people are here thinking that’s free money,” he said. “It’s not free money. Nothing is free in America. You have to answer to them where you’re using that money.”

Moises Jewelry, next to Watch Time, also pays about $3,000 monthly rent. Its owner, who requested anonymity, said the store had nearly $5,000 in sales daily before the project began.

“At the end of the day, we’re all almost out of business,” the owner said. “They say they’re doing many things, but how long is that going to take?”

Although the Downtown Development Authority lists 13 parking garage options near Flagler Street during construction, Mr. Zaine said he’s seen fewer customers, many of whom say they have concerns over access to reliable parking and designated pedestrian crosswalks.

Mr. Zaine said businesses’ customer retention will suffer with the East Flagler Street block still barricaded from vehicle access, “mine even more because mine’s more for tourism and, of course, locals, too. We depend on locals, but things are very, very slow.”

Mr. Zaine has kept his business open while the city has employed multiple agencies in attempts to accelerate the project. Those agencies plus Florida Power & Light, however, have encountered obstacles in finishing the project on time.

“This is not like a brand-new street that you are digging and burying,” said Miami Commissioner Manolo Reyes, the chairman of the Downtown Development Authority. “You are digging and finding what is down there and trying to bury it without doing anything to whatever is damaging any of the areas that have water pipes and everything that is buried under there.”

At the end of last August, the Miami-Dade Water & Sewer Department replaced sewer pipes from East Second Avenue to East First Avenue along East Flagler Street. The utility-related work has kept Mr. Zaine uncertain over the street’s reopening to vehicles.

“When they were digging, they broke water pipes, they broke gas pipes and all different kinds of little things. One day it’s raining, one day it’s not raining, but they don’t have the materials,” Mr. Zaine said. “To be honest with you, it was very, very hard to hear them every day saying, ‘it’s going to be soon, it’s going to be soon.’ And here we are, two years later, no cars, no nothing going around here yet.”

Despite DDA’s $5,000 checks provided to local businesses, Mr. Zaine’s concerns continue as he expects his business to feel similar impact until the project is actually done. He said he’s also concerned for other businesses’ financial longevity. The city has not provided additional checks to the businesses still open.

Still, he acknowledges the challenges the project has encountered, with agencies requiring different timeframes involving required infrastructural work.

In addition to curb-less streets, upgrading drainage systems and installing new utilities,
the Flagler corridor also will have expanded sidewalks, large shade trees, outdoor café dining, public art and seating.

Mr. Zaine and Mr. Victor each said they believe the project will take at least another year-and-a-half, barring any further setbacks discovered in during the work.

“Even before the pandemic, this area was slow,” Mr. Zaine said. “But we were expecting that they would pick up. And right now, they said they were going to have to finish the whole construction all the way down to the courthouse so they can open for the car traffic. But we don’t really know what’s going on. Nobody let us know or is 100% sure what’s going on.”

Commissioner Reyes, on the other hand, said the city hopes to have the project completed by 2024 as originally expected. But until East Flagler Street’s roadway clears, business owners say they will question how long they can keep their storefronts open.