The More in Midtown project began Wednesday, and some local businesses are looking forward to the final result.
The construction, headed up by the Gainesville Community Redevelopment Agency, will take place along Northwest First Avenue and is scheduled to finish in September, according to Alligator archives.
Improvements include expanded sidewalks, additional parking, lighting and newly planted trees. Funding for the project will come from property-tax increases in the CRA district, according to archives.
Brent Smith, the manager of Wyatt’s Coffee, located at 16 NW 18th St., said he expects fewer customers to come in as the project is underway.
“In general, people, when they see construction, they avoid the area that’s under construction — traffic and foot traffic,” he said.
However, the construction will be good in the long run, he said.
“We’re hoping that with all the mass amounts of people, people will want to walk down the new, nice brick sidewalks,” he said. “We will continue to remain open and push through no matter where the construction’s at back there.”
Matt Hodgson, a manager for Grill Fresh, located at 17 NW 17th St., said he doesn’t expect business to slow down much.
“A lot of our business is foot traffic, so I don’t think it’s going to hurt it as bad,” he said. “I hope it gets done quickly, but so far it hasn’t had much of an impact yet.”
Hodgson said the construction will benefit Grill Fresh in the end because of the extra parking it will create.
“It’ll probably entice more people to actually get up and walk around Midtown, and like I said, a lot of our business is foot traffic, so that can only help,” he said.
Richard Melgarejo, a cofounder of Study Edge, located at 1717 NW First Ave., wrote in an email that the increased parking the renovations will bring should help Study Edge be more accessible to students.
“There’s only one month when our block will be under construction,” Melgarejo said, “and even then, students have full access to walk on the sidewalk and right into our building, just like they always have.”
