Transit mall fixes leave some feeling clobbered

BACK STORY • Business owners see all the ups, downs of change

By peter korn

The Portland Tribune, Jul 17, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Smokin’ Pig cart owner Joshua DeLeeuw says sales have dwindled with the loss of heavy pedestrian traffic as the transit mall undergoes renovation on Fifth Avenue.

JIM CLARK / PORTLAND TRIBUNE

Harry Mossalman never thought he’d be giving away his restaurant’s VIP cards, normally priced at $250, for free. But that’s precisely what the owner of Pasha, a Mediterranean restaurant two doors north of Burnside on Northwest Fifth Avenue, has been doing.

Mossalman said he has lost more than half his business since construction started on the new transit mall in January.

Workers at the U.S. Bancorp Tower just across Burnside, Mossalman said, have had to walk three blocks up Burnside to be able to cross the busy street and get to his restaurant.

Many regulars have chosen to go elsewhere for lunch, he said. And those who used to drive have found most of the on-street parking near Mossalman’s restaurant has been removed during the construction.

Meanwhile, the noise from jackhammers continues right outside his front door, sometimes past 10 p.m.

“We are not a coffee shop,” Mossalman said. “We are fine dining. And people like to have a leisurely dinner without jackhammers constantly going and the noise and dust.”

Mossalman has had to shut down his restaurant Sunday through Wednesday evenings. He said he also has had to lay off about half his employees, including cooks, waitresses and bartenders.

“I figured it might be 10 or 20 percent, but it’s 60 percent,” said Mossalman, talking about the drop in his business.

“I never ever had a failure in the food business in Portland,” said Mossalman, who has run a number of Portland-area restaurants over the last 30 years. “But this one has almost got us on an edge.”

Mossalman’s case may be the worst among businesses along Fifth and Sixth avenues that are feeling the brunt of TriMet’s ambitious $207 million plan to lay light-rail tracks on what previously was a bus-dedicated mall.

Some shop owners are talking about losing 10 percent to 20 percent of their business, although many applaud TriMet and other city agencies for doing what they can to minimize their pain. And even Mossalman said that once MAX light-rail trains are running up and down Fifth and Sixth avenues – projected to start about 18 months from now – his business should benefit. As long as his business survives until then.

The transit mall project already has changed downtown in ways expected and unexpected. Some businesses have lost customers, and others have gained. Bus routes have been altered. Even crime patterns have shifted to where the buses have shifted, from Fifth and Sixth to Third and Fourth avenues.

TriMet officials say that no downtown shops have gone out of business due to the transit mall construction.

Ann Becklund, TriMet director of community affairs, said her office checks in at least once a week with every retail business that fronts Fifth and Sixth avenues. The word from most, Becklund said, is not as bad as Mossalman’s.

Pasha, she said, has been hit by Burnside construction in addition to the transit mall work. “My guys are saying they’re complaining but not in a crisis mode,” Becklund said. “And they’ll be glad when it’s over.”

On an 85-degree afternoon with the sun shining bright, there are four customers purchasing food from among the 13 food carts on the east side of Fifth Avenue just south of Burnside.

Joshua DeLeeuw, who owns the Smokin’ Pig barbecue cart, said that a year ago he averaged $200 to $250 a day during the summer. “Today I made $103,” DeLeeuw said.

To get to the food carts, pedestrians must hunt out a narrow walkway over the torn-up street. DeLeeuw said that office workers from buildings in the area have remained lunch customers, but without the pedestrian traffic from the now-gone buses on Fifth Avenue there are few others willing to contend with the noise and dust.

“When the buses were here you’d get 20 to 30 people after 1 p.m., and that just completely disappeared when they started construction,” DeLeeuw said. “We don’t get any walk-up. There’s no traffic. There’s no one driving by.”

A few steps down from Smokin’ Pig, Adam Edelman, who has run Dreamer’s Cafe for three years, paints a similar business picture of his food cart – business down a third to a half from last year. Edelman said he is close to going out of business. “Luckily, I had parents that were able to loan me some money,” he said.

Despite his frustration, Smokin’ Pig’s DeLeeuw acknowledged that TriMet community liaison representatives have tried to help. Cart owners asked that the heaviest construction work stop between noon and 12:30 p.m., and TriMet accommodated them, DeLeeuw said.

And DeLeeuw applied for and received assistance from one of the many support programs aimed at businesses affected by the construction, offered by a combination of city entities, including the Portland Development Commission, TriMet and Portland State University.

DeLeeuw said he received $750 in free graphic design that allowed him to print new business cards and coupons.

Sales can rebound quickly

The effects of the construction can vary considerably based on a number of factors, including the type of business.

A few doors north of Pasha, Katsu Tanaka, owner of Just Be Complex and the Compound Gallery, said his business at his five-year-old boutique has suffered just a little. In January, he said, when construction started, sales dropped considerably. But now they are almost back to last year’s figures.

Tanaka said he thinks he understands why his business, which offers what he calls “street fashion clothes, urban vinyl figures and limited distribution sneakers,” hasn’t suffered as much as Mossalman’s.

“We are more like a destination,” Tanaka said. “If it’s a cafe or restaurant, if that place is hard to get to, there are other places. Our products are kind of unique.”

Tanaka also has benefited from TriMet’s business support program. He is one of 10 shop owners along Fifth and Sixth avenues who have applied for low-interest (1 percent to 3 percent) business loans set aside specifically for business that can show they are affected by the construction. He declined to say how much he would receive from the loan.

Pasha’s Mossalman also has been targeted for support by TriMet, which provided $1,800 in business by arranging a reception for mall project contractors at the restaurant.

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