Construction Forces Local Business to Shut Its Doors
By: Lauren Benson
Tags: Travel, Boutique, Construction, Reno

By Lauren Benson

The city of Reno has done it again. With the lack of parking, high driving traffic, road closures, and much more this new construction series is affecting more than 55 businesses and even costing some owners, their business as a whole.

Joanna Cuenza, owner of Sittie and Sage Boutique states that the 2019 Midtown construction is the reason she is having to close her doors the first of the year. It is understandable that the city of Reno feels the need to “vamp” up the looks of the Midtown district, but do they understand how many businesses they are putting out and affecting? Is it worth it?

The Midtown construction started affecting businesses back in the summer of 2018. A handful of businesses had to close their doors because the foot traffic was slowly dying down due to the effects of the construction. This is exactly the case with Sittie and Sage Boutique.

Joanna states, “There would be days when I would only see one person.” She follows up with the point “If we are open seven hours a day and only see one person, how am I supposed to keep going? I do not even have enough money to pay the rent, my employees, and even merchandise for my store.”

The 2019 construction series began on St. Lawrence street which is where Sittie and Sage is located, along with a few other businesses. Joanna tells me “When Sierra Nevada Construction was doing their walk through before it all began, they handed me a sheet with the layout of the construction and I was immediately overwhelmed, I knew things were going to get bad for the business.”

Employee Alicia Wagner tells me that she began working at Sittie and Sage in the prime time of construction. She says, “I would have to arrive 20 minutes early to work just so that I could find a parking spot.” she explains that the construction was hectic and summarized that the shop actually had to close for a total of a week and a half because there was no access to the front doors.

Image of Midtown Reno Construction. Source: Reno Gazette Journal

According to the midtowndistrict.com, the construction is necessary because their goals are to improve the transit systems, roads, parking, and simply just beautify the area. After talking with Lynn, the manager of Sierra Nevada Construction (SNC) she agrees that the construction is temporarily putting a burden on businesses but assures that it will be worth it in the end. Hearing this was “reassuring”, Joanna says. For most of the business owners and employees, it seemed as if SNC was lagging on the job at as whole but knowing that the construction workers felt just as bad, was nice to hear.

Aubrey O’Laskey, owner of the delicious bakery in midtown called Perenn, explains her frustration with the construction as well. She explains that she understands the reasons but also believes some things were unnecessary. Before the construction began, Perenn was only open Thursday through Sunday until 2pm. Now they are forced to switch their hours to seven days a week, just to make up for the lack of business.

Crème Café who was also on Saint Lawrence street with Sittie and Sage and Perenn, recently had to relocate their business because they weren’t able to afford the rent any longer.

Now that the construction on St. Lawrence St. is over, Sittie and Sage had to change their hours significantly. They used to be open seven days a week for seven hours. Now they are only open six days a week for six hours and only four hours on Sundays. Joanna says” I had to cut back hours of shop as well as my employee’s hours because I would be spending more money during the days then I was able to make.” She tells me that she was “Hopeful the shop would be able to recover after the construction moved but unfortunately, we were not.”