Pedestrian traffic has been lower and drive-by traffic nonexistent for the Shops at Roosevelt due to the 42nd Street bridge and ramp closures this spring, but the impact has been greater for some than others.

The managers of La Mie Bakery, which has been open for about a year and a half, can report how stages of the construction process have affected daily sales.

“We didn’t notice much of a difference in business at first, and then, when they closed the westbound exit, there was a noticeable change,” said Betsy Black, one of the managers.

Black said weekend business is doing fine, but the shop’s weekday traffic has diminished, presumably because of the difficulty to make a quick “stop and go.”

“The morning commute business with people stopping off the freeway for coffee and pastries and then getting back on to go downtown for work has slowed down more than anything else,” Black said.

La Mie’s loyal customers go out of their way to stop by, often inquiring about how the bakery is being affected, she said.

“Fortunately, it hasn’t been that drastic of a change,” she said. “We’ve still retained a lot of our clientele. They’ve been loyal and have been coming in quite a bit.”

Sheena Thomas, a co-owner of Elements Ltd., a designer jewelry store, said foot traffic from nearby eateries previously brought customers into her store, whereas now, the store’s casual patronage is less consistent.

“We’re definitely noticing that the foot traffic—people coming to La Mie or the Drunken Goat—and stopping in because of our window display, is definitely down,” Thomas said.

To counteract this, Elements has a promotion for shoppers. Each purchase customers make until the construction ends in August enters them in a drawing for a 14-karat gold bracelet valued at $618. As consolation prizes, Elements will give away jewelry and pins crafted by a local artist from real street signs.

Elements has been at its current location since 1995, so a number of clients rely on its trained staff for custom work and repairs. Thomas said springtime events, such as graduations, have helped sales, but business is still a little slower than in the past. The store’s owners are taking advantage of the down time to make some changes inside.

“We’ve decided that we’re going to do some remodeling while the bridge is down,” she said. “We’ll be replacing carpet and doing some of those things that need to be done while we know traffic is down.”

For Reichardt’s Clothing, which has been on 42nd Street for more than a half century, some of the reduction in traffic has been offset by Mother’s Day and Father’s Day shopping. But Manager John Reese said there has been a difference in daily traffic.

“The people who’ve been shopping with us for years know how to get here, and they can figure out, without the bridge,” Reese said. “What we’re missing are the people who would normally stop on their way home from work. They’re coming out of work downtown. They’re on their way home to the West Side, they might stop to pick up a shirt for something they have coming up in a couple of days or they need some mending done for something that they’re going out of town for, and they can’t get off the freeway. At 4:30 or 5 p.m. they don’t want to mess with the traffic out there on University.”

Reese said there was a lot of discussion among the Reichardt’s staff about marketing before any road work started, but a consensus was reached to focus instead on how to market the store when the construction is finally completed.

“The bridge is supposed to reopen in July, and I think that will help a lot,” Reese said. “There will be a north-south route bringing people past here again.”

Bill Lusher, a field services coordinator for the Iowa Department of Transportation, said the bridge and ramp work is expected to be completed in August before the school year starts. Another scheduling concern is the local fire station to the south, which has been utilizing a temporary loop to connect it with the eastbound ramp.

As traffic levels pick up again in the area, customers will start to notice improvements to the exteriors of the shops. Mike Simonson, who recently purchased the Shops at Roosevelt, plans to make the stores look fresher and be more accommodating to shoppers.

“There will be new canopies installed across the front, and the parking lot in the rear will be redesigned to include a 12-foot-wide boardwalk across the building at the level of the floor,” he said.

Right now, the rear of the shops is more like a series of loading docks, Simonson said. The boardwalk will be all one level to make access easier for the customers using the redesigned rear parking lot. A house that currently stands behind the shops will soon be moved to make room for more parking.

“We will make the rear pedestrian-oriented with a boardwalk across the back of the building and a landscape buffer between the boardwalk and the parking lot,” Simonson said. “The house will be relocated to another site. It’s awkward where it’s located now, but it’s a great house.”

At Action Accents, a swimwear and women’s sportswear store across the street from the Shops at Roosevelt, business seems to be carrying on close to normal, which store manager Emily Christensen attributes to the loyalty the store has built up during its nearly 20 years in business.

“We’re really destination-driven,” she said. “Most people who are coming here are coming for a reason—to look for a swimsuit.”

Customers from Carroll, Oskaloosa, Marshalltown and beyond travel to Action Accents because of its extensive selection of swimsuits and active wear, Christensen said. The store employees often field cell phone calls from customers en route to shop.

“We’re just giving really good directions on the phone,” she said. “We’re mentioning on our radio advertising that the bridge is under construction, so call for directions. We’re learning a little bit about some of the outlying areas as we help customers find us.”

Christensen said, like other store managers, she is hoping that the road construction doesn’t create a major barrier to shopping in the 42nd Street district in the coming months.

“I would like to hope that they would deal with the construction,” she said. “We offer a good product and have good salespeople and I think that’s hard to find.”

FIGHTING FIRES AND CONSTRUCTION

The disruption of service provided by Des Moines’ Fire Station No. 5, 711 42nd St., was a concern long before the Interstate 235 construction crews began work on the 42nd Street bridge and ramps this spring. The station’s services are needed an average of six to eight times per day, according to Captain Craig Youngblood of the Des Moines Fire Department.

In To minimize those disruptions, Bill Lusher of the Iowa Department of Transportation said construction is slated to move at an expedited pace, finishing in August. The station’s firefighters havealso been guaranteed some eastbound ramp access through the duration of the project.

“It’s gone fairly smoothly,” Youngblood said. “We’ve been able to get to where we need to. It might add a minute to the response time when traveling to calls on the other side of the bridge.”

Despite the minimal impact on the fire station and the promise of swift completion of the construction, some businesses on 42nd Street are already seeing an impact from the construction on their bottom lines.