SPRINGDALE -- Business owners along Emma Avenue are concerned about the recent closing of another portion of the street. They worry it will limit customers.
But they quickly add they're excited for what the finished project will bring to the downtown area.
The city is working to create a gathering space south of Emma, just across the street from Shiloh Square and Turnbow Park. Emma sits in the heart of the city's downtown district, which city leaders have been working to revitalize since the first Downtown Master Plan was adopted in 2015.
City leaders stress Emma is still open to Spring Street, a one-way north street west of Commercial Street.
And the sidewalks along Emma will remain open with the exception of the Razorback Greenway crossings when those sections are under construction.
The Downtown Springdale Alliance will continue hosting events, drawing people to the district from now until Christmas, said Jill Dabbs, executive director of the Alliance.
City officials are sticking with the motto they created in hopes of easing the pain of Emma's latest closing: "Minor inconvenience. Major transformation."
Concerning
Brent Hale, owner of Big Sexy Food, doesn't see the closing of Emma as a death-knell, especially with the sidewalk open.
"It probably wouldn't have been such a big deal if they hadn't announced it," he quipped.
Jennifer Matsubara, owner of Shelby Lynn's Cake Shoppe and the Maple Market across the street, noted merchants especially are worried about the Christmas shopping season, when sales are vital.
"They are worried shoppers will try to avoid downtown altogether because of the construction," Matsubara said.
Matsubara recommended shoppers figure a way around the closing and plan an extra five minutes to get to the district. She said merchants also will be happy to help customers carry items to their cars.
Big Sexy is one of the few businesses behind the fences erected for construction that rely on walk-in customers. And the business couldn't make it without them, Hale said.
"We need new customers every day," he said. "And we need our faithful followers to come in more often."
Other businesses behind the construction fence include a physical therapist and an accounting office, but neither relies on foot traffic.
The restaurant has plenty of parking behind the building, a back entrance and a large outdoor dining space, Hale pointed out.
"We have parking -- free parking," he said. "People just have to find it."
The parking lot entrance for Big Sexy is accessible from Meadow Avenue.
The restaurant will continue its open-night comedy, live music and trivia nights during the week and specially themed, ticketed meals.
At the other end of Emma, Ana Ramirez is hoping the recent opening of East Emma Avenue in front of her business will bring more people to Worlds Best Java and Pies.
The city on Sept. 22 opened East Emma Avenue from North Water Street on the west to just east of Emma's intersection with Park Street, which had been closed since May to align north-south streets Berry and Park.
Ramirez said she had no idea how the opening would affect her business. She said people had trouble finding the business with construction in the front, and the back entrance sat behind several fences and lots holding construction equipment for the alignment of Park and Berry streets.
She thinks her social media posts kept hungry diners looking for the restaurant at the back of the former Fuels & Supplies building.
Ramirez hasn't owned the business long. The couple who started the restaurant as a pizza place sold it to her. She said they opened about a month before Emma closed.
Springdale Mayor Doug Sprouse said city officials didn't close the portion of West Emma until the East Emma construction was completed.
"We thought this was a good time to move this project forward and support the city's growth," he said.
Sprouse encouraged residents to make an effort to patronize downtown businesses.
Making sense
The trail's new approach from Meadow Avenue north to Emma will provide a plaza space and gathering areas on both sides of the trail, explained Patsy Christie, the director of the city's Planning Department. The construction project also will move the Razorback Greenway where it crosses Emma.
And the city's water and sewer utility will take advantage of the open road to replace decades-old pipes.
The city didn't have the money to build this streetscape when Turnbow Park and the Razorback Greenway were built, Sprouse said.
"Now we're ready to do the project so it makes sense for us," he said.
The Walton Family Foundation provided the city with a $3.1 million grant for construction of the project that deals directly with the greenway. The city will pay the remaining $1.8 million for the streetscape, Christie said.
Dean LaGrone, chairman of the city's new Active Transportation Committee, said the approach to Emma from the south was awkward along the Greenway. A retaining wall blocked vision, and cyclists had to ride up and down curbs while trying to stop and start their bicycles, he said. Then, they faced another right turn.
"Slowing down to stop while making a hard turn is hard," LaGrone said. "A bicycle is not as stable at slower speeds."
Springdale Water Utilities will replace an old water line under the greenway and Emma, Heath Ward, director of Springdale Water Utilities, told the Springdale Water and Sewer Commission on Wednesday.
The utility prefers to replace infrastructure when streets are already open for improvements, Ward said.
Continuing
The current closing on West Emma Avenue isn't the first time portions of the street have been closed, and it won't be the last.
"Downtown is going to see some constant repair," Sprouse said. "But you've got to tear things up to fix them and make it what we want. There's always trade-offs."
The city first closed a part of Emma to install the streetscape from Shiloh to Blair streets in 2016. The work was timed to open the street in correspondence with the historic Apollo Theater -- now Apollo on Emma -- Sprouse said.
The streetscape included angled parking and planting beds to slow traffic.
The street was closed again for the city to install the streetscape from Water Street west to the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad tracks. Ward said his department built the street and its enhancements after a mess of deteriorating 50- to 60-year-old water and sewer pipes were discovered.
The water utility will require another closing of Emma to move an old, clay sewer line under the building many residents identify as First State Bank or Bank of America. The lot is under construction for a mixed-used project developed by Blue Crane, a company with ties to the Walton family.
Ward said the sewer line to be moved connects with another that runs along Spring Street. The Spring Street line is running at capacity, and the utility will replace it with a bigger line in the same construction project.
Ward said they hoped to time the sewer replacement with this current closing of Emma, but the project is running about six months behind. He said any closing required by the utility will find construction workers closing just one lane of the street at a time. The utility also stops any holes made during construction with plates drivers can drive over, requiring no long-term street closing.
'Amazing'
The Downtown Alliance started notifying businesses about the closing several months ago, and a representative of Milestone came to the restaurant about six months ago to explain what was going to happen, handed over a business card and told Hale to call him if there were any problems.
"It's not ideal to have Emma closed, but we've seen worse," Hale said with a shrug. The restaurant opened four years ago.
"Only the perception of downtown has changed [with the latest closing of Emma]," he said. "We're all still here. This time next year, it will be a whole different story."
Hale said it will be a downtown area different from the rest in Northwest Arkansas. He said he really appreciates the diversity.
Hale looks forward to the opening of a renewed Luther George Park. A groundbreaking is set for Friday.
Matsubara has been waiting 21 years for the revitalization of downtown. She bought a cake business already operating on Emma.
"It's finally happening," she said. "I think this is just a leaping point for more. But, golly, let's wrap all this up."
"The process always proceeds the product, and the end product is going to be amazing," Sprouse promised.
Interview on closing
of Emma Avenue