Hillcrest businesses see holiday drop in sales amid public works project

Hillcrest business owners say a city infrastructure project is blocking customer access to their stores and hurting sales during what is typically one of their busiest times of year.

Storm drain construction on 5th Avenue between Brookes and Pennsylvania avenues began in earnest early this month, when city contractors installed fencing and barricades along the sidewalk and in the street.

The business owners say they weren’t given enough advance warning, leaving them little time to notify customers or plan ahead. For some, sales were down by half compared to last year’s holiday season.

“Our place is completely empty,” said Victoria Robertson, co-owner of Divo Diva Cafe. “If you drive by and you don’t see the business because it’s hidden by two walls — and even if you do see it — you’re like, ‘Well, how am I going to get to that? That looks like a mess.’”

Hillcrest is no stranger to construction. It’s in the midst of a homebuilding boom and getting a redesign of Normal Street and a rebuild of the UC San Diego Hillcrest campus.

“There are very few streets in Hillcrest that are not either impacted by public construction or private construction,” said Benjamin Nicholls, executive director of the Hillcrest Business Association. “This is a neighborhood transforming.”

The development is a good thing, given the need for better infrastructure and more housing, Nicholls says.

The business owners agree but worry about the long-term impacts. December is usually busy for their restaurants, coffee shops and beauty salons; holiday sales help them get through the slower first quarter to come.

“You got to let us collect our acorns,” said Johnny Rivera, owner of Hash House a Go Go, a popular brunch spot. “There was no empathy and no appreciation to any one of our business models during the holidays.”

The improvements are part of a legal settlement from 2019 that requires the city to update the area’s stormwater infrastructure, after properties near 5th Avenue and Brookes Avenue experienced significant flooding.

“It aims to address a common concern in this area about flooding, which residents and businesses have complained to the city about,” city spokesperson Tyler Becker said in an email.

Construction was set to begin on the $7 million project in late spring but was halted after workers encountered underground utility infrastructure and pieces of old trolley track that had to be addressed first, Becker said. Work resumed early this month and is expected to end by October, with the traffic barriers removed in the spring.

But in the meantime, business owners say it’s taking a toll.

Such frustration isn’t all that rare. In City Heights, a yearslong construction project along University Avenue upended businesses and traffic, leading to neighborhood outcry.

Emily Renda, the board president of Business for Good, a resource and advocacy group for San Diego businesses, says that there shouldn’t be such a price for progress.

“If we’re gonna grow our city and put in more housing, we have to update our infrastructure. That’s super important,” Renda said.

But there has to be a balance, she says. “We need to support small businesses and make sure that they’re not a casualty of this type of construction.”

The business owners on 5th Avenue agree and wish there had been better communication and a different strategy, such as rolling out the project in phases instead of placing fencing along the whole block.

Natashah Abrishamchian, who co-owns Beauty by Dolly, a waxing and eyebrow threading salon on 5th Avenue, wanted to see more of a focus on the project’s impact on local commerce.

“It does seem like businesses were definitely not in the forefront of this construction planning,” she said. “And that’s really sad, because small businesses are what really make Hillcrest special.”

Becker said the city has spoken with its contractor, LB Civil Construction, to reiterate its expectations, including that equipment should not be staged in front of businesses. The company referred a request for comment to the city.

It’s the responsibility of both the city and the contractor to notify community members about such projects.

The contractor put up signs near the construction zone and door-hanger notifications in late May, before the project was expected to begin.

Becker said it put up more door hangers in early December, the day after crews had already set up K-rails and other barricades. He said the company was encouraged, but not required, to notify neighbors again.

For business owners, the notice was too late.

Early this month, business owners met with staff from the city’s Engineering and Capital Projects Department and the offices of Mayor Todd Gloria and Councilmember Stephen Whitburn to ask that the construction be postponed until January.

City officials expressed sympathy. The communication the business owners got was “unacceptable,” Ryan Darsey, Whitburn’s deputy chief of staff, told them in an email. “I would have liked to have seen more consideration given to the timing,” Whitburn added in a statement to the Union-Tribune.

But the city ultimately moved ahead, and said delaying the project would cost an extra $500,000 and could lead to future flood risk.

“It is critical that we address these issues now, as any delay could increase the risk of flooding during the upcoming rainy season, significantly extend the overall project timeline and substantially increase the project cost due to demobilization and remobilization,” Becker said in an email.

In the meantime, the businesses want people to know they are still there, even if their storefronts are obscured.

Abrishamchian spent $300 on signs to announce her shop is still open. Her business relies heavily on walk-in customers, and she worries that if the store is too hard to reach, they’ll just decide to go elsewhere.

“During the holiday season, we’re usually buzzing,” Abrishamchian said. But now, “everyone’s kind of just sitting around.”