BY TINA BENITEZ-EVES | The beginning of construction was the end for Amy Miceli’s business. As soon as the construction started along W. 10th St., where Miceli and her husband ran the coffee / breakfast nook Ciao for Now for seven years, business slowly started to dry up.
Ciao for Now, at 107 W. 10th St., served up freshly made spinach-and-feta biscuits, peanut butter and jelly bars, quiches, frittata, polenta-lemon muffins and other small, delectable breakfast and light lunch treats. But more than a year of work along W. 10th St. between Greenwich and Sixth Aves. started heavily impacting nearly a dozen businesses. There were closures due to random water shutdowns and phone-line cutoffs — which prevented stores from accepting credit cards or using their point-of-sales systems. Ciao for Now finally was forced shut its doors on June 25.
“It started right away for us and got bad,” said Miceli, who first started closing on Sundays, then for entire weekends last summer, to offset slowed business around the construction, which had just started at the time.
“We tried everything we could do,” she said. “We really wanted it to work. The more I talk about it, I just get really upset. We had such a great business over there, and people were really dedicated to what we did.”
Last March, work started on the Department of Design and Construction’s project “MED 617” to upgrade existing water mains, some of which are more than a century old, throughout the city, including along W. 10th St. from West St. all the way to Fifth Ave.
Although the street work was reportedly scheduled to end within a year, it continued on through this spring and early summer along W. 10th St. between Sixth and Greenwich Aves., forcing some businesses to close during peak business hours because of water shutdowns and other disruptions associated with the project.
The owners simply could not figure out how to keep their cafe in business around the construction. Employees still needed to get paid, and the Micelis, who brought in freshly made foods, were losing large amounts daily.
“We tried every angle,” she said. “My husband and I are very hard-working people. We made it through the Con Ed explosion in 2010 and Hurricane Sandy. It almost did us in, but after seven years of making up for years of things that you don’t get any money back for, it’s awful.”
The Con Ed explosion gutted the former Village Paper and Party Store on the corner of Greenwich Ave. and W. 10th St.
Although the street work has currently shifted over to Seventh Ave. South and W. 10th St. and between Fifth and Sixth Aves., the installation of a catch basin at W. 10th St. and Greenwich Ave. is still pending, according to a D.D.C. representative.
To continue this work, the city has left the construction site between Greenwich and Sixth Aves. intact, including cones lining the downtown side of the street and a parked tractor near the corner of Sixth Ave. and W. 10th St. — all of which the remaining merchants and restaurateurs believe has brought down their business even more.
The leftover construction staging area is preventing cars from parking and, according to businesses owners, is a hindrance to general foot traffic along the quaint West Village street, where businesses stretch from corner to corner. These include Southeast Asian restaurant Cafe Asean, the bar Happiest Hour, newcomer Gingersnap’s Organic — a raw vegan cafe — a barbershop and more.
A D.D.C. spokesperson told The Villager that the project, which also includes work on roadway surfaces, curbs and — in some locations — sidewalks, in addition to installing new distribution water mains, now is expected to be completed by spring 2016. (Con Ed is also using the excavation work to upgrade gas lines along the project sites.)
“N.Y.C. Department of Design and Construction is working closely with local businesses and community members in order to be good neighbors in those communities experiencing our construction activities,” said Shavone Williams. “We are currently working to finish our water main project in a safe and timely manner… . Efforts will result in new water infrastructure for the neighborhood. We will replace a 100-year-old water main, in order to provide the community with better and more efficient water services.”
Richard Ahn, owner of Elite Shoe Repair, at 105 W. 10th St., doesn’t rely as heavily on water as some of his neighboring businesses, but said that he has still seen his receipts drop by 10 to 15 percent since construction started. Business really dropped this year when the street work became more sporadic, and merchants were randomly forced to close during peak operating hours, he noted.
Like other businesses along W. 10th, Ahn has to ask suppliers to park around the corner and then walk supplies to his store due to the stacked pipes and parked tractor blocking the street. When clients want to pick up items, they have to park in front briefly and hurriedly grab their goods.
Having operated on W. 10th St. for the past 18 years, Ahn said he has never experienced such a big work disruption — not even following Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
“This year was worse,” Ahn said. “Do you know how many times they have been digging and covering it back up? I don’t know why they said construction would last one year.”
For a time, the city did not even inform the businesses beforehand about upcoming water shutoffs, Ahn added, but they eventually started giving some advance notice. However, Miceli said often the notices only came the evening before, not giving the stores and eateries enough time to prepare.
Gingersnap’s Organic opened this February at 113 W. 10th St., in the former Bees Knees coffee shop space. It hasn’t been around long enough to feel the work’s full negative impact, unlike neighboring businesses, yet has experienced some water disruptions.
“We have had our water shut off a couple of times,” said manager Anna Lownes. She added that when the city didn’t inform them one day about an upcoming water shutoff, they couldn’t prepare food and beverages or even clean dishes. “We haven’t been here long enough to notice any crazy change or if it’s really affected us yet,” she said. “It seems like other people on the block have had serious issues.”
As for the Micelis, they’re now focusing on Ciao for Now’s original East Village restaurant at 523 E. 12th St., between Avenues A and B, which has been operating for more than 13 years. The couple want to expand the restaurant’s menu and wine list, but have no plans to reopen a second location again.
“I don’t think I can do this again,” she said. “Getting through Hurricane Sandy and the Con Ed explosion were the hardest things I’ve ever had to deal with in my life. We were dealing with insurance companies and bureaucratic crap and then coming out the other end with nothing. I’m just getting too old for this. I have three young children. We can’t make it through another hard time.”
