Mind Your Business: Construction on Riverside Drive squeezing businesses [The Macon Telegraph, Ga.]

Dec. 09--Dolly Estrada, owner of a Caribbean grocery store on Riverside Drive, called me Wednesday. I could hear the concern in her voice.

"This construction is really hurting our business," she said.

She's not alone.

One of her neighbors in the same shopping center, Arthur Caldwell, owner of Steak-Out Char-Broiled Delivery, said his business has seen better days.

"We're lucky we do 60 percent delivery, but (the construction) does impact the 40 percent, our pick-up and carry-out," he said.

Things aren't any different a few blocks north at Pier 97 Seafood & Grill.

"It's hurting us a lot, especially at night," said Niven Van, the restaurant's owner.

The entry to her business is completely flooded with water while an adjacent entry, used to access another business, is being used by Van's customers. But "they don't know which one to use," Van said, adding that she's repeatedly asked the state Department of Transportation to block the flooded entrance. "I saw a really expensive car pull in that way," she said Thursday, pointing to the massive, flooded pothole.

As I visited with some of the businesses on this stretch of Riverside Drive on Wednesday and Thursday, I thought about the last time I did this in January 2009.

A couple of people here at The Telegraph told me they heard the Wendy's was closing. I drove out there to talk to a manager and expected to hear how the ailing economy was forcing them to close up.

My interest was piqued when she told me they're closing because the state bought the property and were planning to knock the building down. She didn't know why and I needed to find out.

After walking to several businesses up and down Riverside Drive and finding nothing, I made a last stop at Alfa Insurance on Lee Road.

There I met Lee Johnson and asked him if he knew anything about the state buying property on Riverside Drive.

"Come in here and take a look at these," he said, unrolling some blueprints.

I dropped by Lee's office Thursday to thank him but couldn't because he had since retired. I wanted to thank him because my visit to his office that day allowed The Telegraph, and subsequently other local media outlets, to share for the first time with the public a massive undertaking being planned by the state.

The $54.5 million project, which started in August 2010, is projected for completion in spring 2013.

Contact Telegraph business editor Harold Goodridge at 744-4382.

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