COLORADO SPRINGS — Drivers are not the only ones excited to drive on the newly opened Powers and Research Interchange, but excitement for nearby business owners is also ramping up.
Nearby business owners said they're relieved now that the interchange is open. Many said construction deterred customers from driving to the area, and they are hoping business will return to normal moving forward.
“It’s a lot of relief today. It’s been a tough 14 to 15 months. it's really impacted us and all the businesses around us,” said Daniel Dreyfuss, the owner of Pies & Grinders.
Dreyfuss said his restaurant saw a 15% to 20% drop in sales since early last summer when construction began.
“I have a lot of my guests that I used to see every week, they come in every three months now and they tell us, ‘we love you guys, we try to come here as often as we can, but frankly it’s just not worth the hassle to get here,’” said Dreyfuss.
Plus, as businesses were returning to normal post-pandemic, and customers were returning to restaurants, the construction was just beginning.
“We had, you know, two years struggling with COVID. and then, boom, ‘hey, we're going to shut down your intersection,’” said Dreyfuss.
Jei Sushi is located next door. Jen Lastrella will be taking over ownership soon and he said when construction started it also deterred customers from going to his business.
“We really noticed customers were having a hard time trying to get to the location. New customers didn't even want to have to go through the U turn, and they were kind of confused on how to get to us,” said Lastrella.
Lastrella said the road work also impacted his commute time.
“Traffic would back up a little bit, so it would delay me sometimes ten or 15 minutes to get to work,” said Lastrella.
While it has been a challenging past year for these businesses, they say the improvements on the interchange will help business moving forward.
“I’m super excited. Hopefully it'll bring back old customers that were blocked off initially by that construction and bring new customers in,” said Lastrella.
“I think it'll have immediate impact to help us out,” said Dreyfuss. “We're grateful for that, and hopefully we can get back to business as usual now.”
While the interchange opened on Wednesday, clean up efforts like taking down signage and removing barriers, are still underway. A spokesperson for CDOT says there will be a few small construction projects wrapping up, but everything should be finished in November.
They also mentioned they did their best to communicate with small businesses about the impacts, and appreciate the patience from business owners, customers and residents.
A ribbon button ceremony for the interchange will happen on September 29.
For more information about the project, click here.
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