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MOUNT CLEMENS — Closing a major street and parking lot for a summer-long construction project may seem like a death knell to local businesses, but the reality appears to be different.
The Downtown Revitalization Project in Mount Clemens, which aims to create a new atmosphere for the city’s shopping corridor with a curbless Macomb Place and an updated New Street parking lot, has kept cars away from much of the city’s downtown since late March.
Despite the decrease in vehicle traffic directly to the area, businesses have reported strong customer traffic while city events continue to draw large crowds. Michelle Weiss, Mount Clemens Downtown Development Authority coordinator, points to the Made in Michigan Show from the May 10-11 weekend as an example of how people continue to support businesses and events in the area.
“We were pleasantly surprised that (the Made in Michigan Show) had 19,700 people come to the event in two days, which our artists were just so happy,” Weiss said. “They all made a lot of money … But also, my concern was the regular stores that normally have Made in Michigan directly in front of them. But surprisingly enough, they all had a really great weekend with that. We are finding out that people that are loyal to our stores are not afraid to come down. We certainly have had a lot of people through the construction that just want to come down and see how far (along) we are.”
Businesses have seen similar to increased traffic to the area during construction. Ben Horgan, manager of the Escapology escape room, says the venue has seen an increase in walk-in traffic over 2024 and that the issues caused by construction have mostly been limited to customers parking further away.
“Nobody’s really complained about it,” Horgan said. “The only issue that’s affected us is people are either showing up right on time or a little bit late. But even then, people showing up five minutes late, seven minutes late is not a huge deal.”
One of Horgan’s few issues with the construction has been the loss of direct participation in events on Macomb Place.
“The one thing that’s affected us that’s been kind of a bummer is that for the Made in Michigan shows or any show or street things that they’ve done out front in the past, we generally set up a little tent and pass out flyers,” Horgan said. “We haven’t been able to do that, but we’ve kind of just upped marketing in other areas.”
Over at Weirdsville Records on Macomb Place, manager Angel Beckett says customer traffic is still going strong.
“I’m working seven days a week,” Beckett said. “When it slows down maybe I can have a break, but we’ve been going strong as always. We know we’re going to be even stronger when it opens up.”
Beckett says Weirdsville’s customers this summer have included everyone from construction workers to people coming over Oakland County communities like Royal Oak and Bloomfield to even people from out of state and from Canada.
In addition to managing Weirdsville, Beckett owns one of the six businesses to either open downtown during construction — Cravin’ Raven in the Cherry Street Mall — or working on opening in the future. Airborne Comics and Collectibles as well as Buchanan’s Best Bistro opened during the construction, while Hungry Howie’s Pizza is opening at 75 N. Main Street. Other new businesses are preparing locations at 48 New Street and 42 Pine Street.
“Most everyone that I’ve spoken to and have spoken to me about leasing and stuff, they all have been, ‘No, I’m fine with it,’” Weiss said. “You want them to know that this is going to happen and when it’s going to end, but everybody has been fairly easy.”
Beckett has found business to be good at Cravin’ Raven.
“We thought we would take a very slow start; we have been slammed every day,” Beckett said. “In fact, we started with five days a week (and) now we’re open seven just to keep up with business.”
So far, the biggest hurdle in completing the current stage of the project has been the New Street parking lot. While the lot itself is built, delays in the delivery of parking kiosks are preventing the lot from being striped and approved by the city for active use.
“The construction company has liability (for the lot), so we have to abide by their timeline,” Weiss said. “We’re very close (to completion) with the New Street parking lot, so we’re very excited about that.”
While the delay in opening the New Street lot has proven to be a slight challenge for Escapology by having players park further away, Horgan was concerned about how the restaurants that surround Escapology and are bordered on all sides by construction are faring.
“Hopefully all the bars and restaurants down here make it through all of this,” Horgan said. “We love Abbibo. We love Little Lorraine’s. We’ve got really good relationships with both of those places.”
Several restaurants in the area were approached for comment but did not respond by press time.
While Weiss says some businesses have adjusted hours to adapt to the construction, the only two closures that have happened in the area have been temporary and unrelated to construction. Mae’s Breakfast and Lunch had a brief closure after its main chef was injured. It reopened in early August, while Max & Ollie’s Vintage Boutique is temporarily closed due to flooding issues from one of the floors above them and is looking to reopen in November.
“For some (businesses) like Abbibo, their front and back entrances have not been closed but open,” Weiss said. “We’ve freed up the walkway in the back, but we still don’t have cars that can come into the parking lot because we haven’t been released from that contract yet.”
The first phase of construction, which focuses on Macomb Place and the New Street parking lot, is expected to wrap up no later than November. A second phase to rework Cherry Street into a more navigable roadway is planned to follow the first phase’s completion.
For more information about downtown Mount Clemens events and happenings, go to downtownmountclemens.org.
