Uptown Waterloo businesses eager for street reopenings

Retailers in Uptown Waterloo are eagerly counting down the days to November 30, when roads that have been closed for months for LRT construction are set to reopen.

King Street from Erb to William has been closed since February 2016. In March, construction crews found a historic corduroy log road under King Street, and stopped work from March 11 to until the week of April 21, to give archaeologists a chance to document the find.

• Corduroy road found under King Street in Waterloo to be removed

Brooks said despite the construction several businesses opened in Uptown during the last 18 months. In the same time frame, afew businesses left, but according to Brooks, those were for reasons other than construction.

Still, construction took a toll.

"Are they struggling?Absolutely.I'm not going to sit here and tell you that it hasn't been difficult," said Brooks.

#UpTownOpen campaign

The BIA launched a campaign to get people to come shop despite construction.

"If feedback is any indication, it worked, really, really well," she said. "Feedback meaning boots in the stores, money at the cash registers, and people saying to us, your open campaign is awesome."

Brooks said the goal was to ease the perception that it was too difficult to get to Uptown and get around during construction.

The city of Waterloo also extended free parking from two hours to three hours, in three Uptown lots, which Brooks said also helped.

OnDecember 3rd, there's an event to celebrate the road re-opening, called the Festival of Living Streets.