Pullman’s Main Street opens to one lane of drivers; businesses relieved construction wraps up soon

The city of Pullman reopened one lane of Main Street on Thursday, welcoming drivers back through the heart of the city after nearly eight months of detours and delays for a major renovation project.

Project Downtown Pullman aims to create community-centered spaces and calm traffic through infrastructure upgrades and improved accessibility. Those improvements include wider sidewalks for pedestrians and outdoor seating, updated underground utilities and new landscaping.

Cars are rolling through downtown, pedestrians are enjoying new and improved sidewalks, and local business owners are eager to attract more customers.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Chris Chandler, special projects manager for Neill’s Flowers & Gifts and co-owner of Neill’s Coffee & Ice Cream. “It’s been a hard summer, and missing basically the whole football season for incoming sales has been rough.”

However, he noted that Neill’s stayed afloat during construction thanks to strong community support. Kids run around buying ice cream, a local coffee group with an average age of 90 visits three times a week and phone orders help sustain business, Chandler said.

“We’re very lucky that way,” he said.

Other downtown Pullman businesses haven’t been so lucky.

B&L Bicycles Owner Brice Erickson said his business is down around $200,000 since construction began April 1. Their busy season stems from March to October, so he’s looking forward to spring to boost revenue and see more customers.

“I do think next spring we’ll see a lot of that come back as people get used to downtown being open again, and it does look good, there’s a lot of positives here,” Erickson said.

Downtown construction has been more impactful to his business than the COVID pandemic, he said.

“(The construction) affected just us, just the businesses in this quarter of a mile. It wasn’t like the entire world had to adapt,” Erickson said.

Bruised Books is another downtown business that’s lost a significant chunk of its yearly revenue, down about one-third this year compared to years prior, store manager Sally Burkhart said. Sales dropped most significantly in October and early November.

She attributes the decrease in sales to residents’ frustrations with the difficulty of getting downtown as construction progressed, creating confusion about where people were allowed to go.

“We tried to do practical things and make use of the opportunity to do some other things in the store like shelf shifting,” Burkhart said. “We tried to make the best of it.”

Mayor Francis Benjamin said traffic signals weren’t up and running on Thursday, but drivers should see them within the next couple of weeks. Construction will be finished by Nov. 22.

“We’re really close; the weather is our biggest factor right now. You can only pour so much concrete in the rain,” Benjamin said.

Tawny Szumlas is the owner of Rico’s Public House, located near the corner of Main Street and Grand Avenue. She’s excited construction is wrapping up and said the new sidewalks are “wonderful and inviting.”

“Hopefully the city council will be permitting us to have our outdoor seating again; that was a big hit for us last summer,” Szumlas said. “We’re looking forward to welcoming the people that come downtown.”

Allowing traffic back to Main Street is a month behind schedule, as construction was initially projected to be finished by Oct. 15. The project is also running over budget, with an original price tag of $11.7 million.

The city is funding the now-$12.4 million project with $9.5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act, a $1 million Transportation Improvement Board grant and $200,000 from Whitman County’s 2024 economic development funds.

The remaining project costs are funded through Pullman’s street, water or sewer funds, Benjamin said.

“The thing I’m excited about is people will be able to drive by the businesses and, in some places, be able to stop in,” Benjamin said. “It’s really a light at the end of the tunnel.”