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After a slow summer for many local businesses, King State cofounder Tim McTague said the Tampa cafe and bar was eager for the return of customers in the fall and winter.
But when September arrived, so did construction that closed the Floribraska Avenue block in front of King State’s doors.
The business posted on social media saying customers were confused on if the cafe was open due to the road closures. Some said they worried they could be breaking the law to hop around construction that’s expected to wrap up in March.
Even though King State posted maps online to explain how customers can get around it, McTague told local officials at Thursday’s City Council meeting that the business is “hemorrhaging” its cash reserves. The impact of the construction has been financially worse than the entire COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
“The biggest bummer of that is we’re not even halfway through and we’re slowly, slowly going down to zero,” McTague said at the meeting.
The cafe is asking the city and the public to help keep them afloat.
The owners are calling for urgency from public leaders to improve the situation. For customers, they’re asking people to visit their Tampa flagship open since 2019 or go to their new and unobstructed restaurant in downtown St. Petersburg.
The construction that closed the road is part of the Floribraska Avenue Complete Streets Project meant to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians. The city expects the current phase of the project, which is replacing old water pipes, to finish in late February or early March, said Tampa spokesperson Adam Smith in an email.
The next phase to reconfigure the street will begin in May and should be “less disruptive,” Smith said.
While projects like this can help improve a growing metro, a public commenter at the city council meeting said if it’s not properly handled, Tampa is at risk of losing destinations worth biking to.
“Mayor Castor told senior staff members that it is unacceptable and inexcusable to have neglected to install better directional signs for a business seriously impacted by a road closure and to ensure the owners were fully looped into what was coming,” Smith said. “We need to do better.”
City officials said they’re working with the contractor to get better signage showing King State is still open, Smith said, and have pointed King State owners to the city’s risk management team to file a lost business income claim.
“We love the city. We love the growth. We’re not anti-growth. We’re not anti-construction,” McTague told City Council. “What we are is anti- expecting the small business of our size to deal with six straight months of having your entire road blocked without any financial assistance.”
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