The Battle of Biscayne Hills
Hidden Behind Giant Piles of Dirt, Ripped Up Streets and Gridlocked Traffic are Boulevard Corridor Businesses. Will They Miss Out on the Super Bowl Windfall?

“The end result will be great — you just gotta hope that you can survive until then.”

By Angie Hargot

The voice of Bob Marley manages to echo out over the bottleneck at the corner of 69th Street and Biscayne Boulevard, even though the traffic is compacted into two lanes, one in each direction. The music is coming from Uva 69, a restaurant surrounded by a chain-link fence and printed banner in an attempt to shield diners from the street wreckage feet away.

Outside this makeshift cocoon, a week before the Super Bowl drives hundreds of millions in tourism dollars through South Florida, drivers lay on their horns, run red lights and dart in front of each other, frustrated by the congestion caused by the construction projects. It is early afternoon on a Sunday.

For some shops on Biscayne Boulevard, it is the business equivalent of a war zone.

A number of storefronts on the west side of the street look almost inaccessible. Massive bright yellow Cat bulldozers block their front windows. Down side streets, whole medians piled high with rubble stretch into residential neighborhoods. Mounds of dirt (not quite mountains but maybe hills) lie along Biscayne. Just in front of the mounds are generic blue and white signs that point to the businesses that operate on the other side.

“It’s terrible, you can’t get in [to the storefront]. The roads are cut up. There are construction trucks everywhere,” said Steve Nadel, owner of Tyler Galleries at 6914 Biscayne Blvd. Nadel, in business at that location for 33 years, has lost his entire customer parking to the construction.

“We would have gotten a lot of business from the Super Bowl. It’s season. A lot of out-of-town clients, a lot of business from people from out of the state,” Nadel said. “We depend on traffic, and they can’t get in. They run into signs that say ‘street closed’ and can’t even get down the streets. It’s tough. It’s hard to talk to anyone. I feel we should be compensated for lost business. It’s affecting everybody.”

Uva 69 manager Pancho Jimenez says the fence, provided by the Florida Department of Transportation, has helped. “We’re in a smaller area of the construction, unlike Miami Shores, and we’re not tourist-heavy,” Jimenez said. “We’ve been lucky.” Other nearby businesses with outdoor seating, Starbucks and Dogma Grill for example, were also provided fences and banners.  

This $59 million-plus portion of the Biscayne Boulevard Reconstruction Project entails constructing a new drainage system, rebuilding the roadway and sidewalks, and installing new signals, lighting, signage and pavement markings, states the project’s Web site.

According to FDOT, part of the project, currently in several phases stretching from 72nd Street south to 38th Street, is actually ahead of schedule. Also according to FDOT — policy does not provide compensation for business damages related to construction or lost revenue.

“The Biscayne Boulevard Reconstruction Project from Northeast 67th Street to Northeast 78th Street began Jan. 8, 2007, and is expected to last approximately 16 months,” said Herbert Ammons, public information specialist for the FDOT Biscayne Boulevard Reconstruction Project. “The project was to begin on Oct. 23, 2006, but was delayed to accommodate the desires of the local business owners along this section of the corridor.”

Area businesses wanted the construction delayed until after the holidays.

Just down the road from Nadel’s gallery, Mark Soyka’s namesake restaurant in the 55th Street Station seems to enjoy a little relief due to its location. Here, drivers can duck down 55th Street to escape some of the congestion, and even pull into a convenient alleyway that runs through the station.

“People that come [from out of town] know once they get on Biscayne — it becomes a deterrent,” Soyka told the SunPost. “I know other businesses suffer more than [my restaurant] Soyka. But I remember the construction on Ocean Drive, and staring at holes all day maybe made me a little numb. It reduces business and creates a mess. It aggravates.”

Veteran restaurateur Soyka owns six restaurants in South Florida and has gotten used to Miami’s growing pains and, well, Super Bowl pains.

“[With Super Bowl] the town is going to be crazy — a mess. There are 17 tenants at the 55th Street Station. The hair salon didn’t suffer much, but [I estimate] the car wash, the pizzeria, the gym have suffered a 20 to 30 percent reduction in sales [due to the construction],” Soyka said. “It’s not horrible all around, but I can’t say it didn’t affect business. It hurt. But I’m an optimistic person.”

In contrast to Nadel’s history on the block, The Luna Café at 4770 Biscayne Blvd. has only been open since Sept. 25. Its management also remains optimistic.

“People have been able to find us through the construction,” said Luna Café manager Tom Billante. “It does damper business. We go out and talk to the construction workers for updates, and they say ‘in front of your space? Next month.’ This is the season for Florida. We’re happy with our numbers, and once the road is done we’ll do more business. People avoid the construction, but they like what they see [at Luna Café]. So we’re growing in our customer base.”

With Biscayne Boulevard one of the few thoroughfares from the beaches to Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, drivers who pick the wrong route could find themselves wishing they’d chosen differently.

According to Ammons, construction between 72nd and 78th streets is being delayed to accommodate Super Bowl activities.

“The construction team always meets with affected businesses and residents in an effort to ease the impacts of construction and coordinate access issues in advance,” he said.

Nadel, for one, says he was recently updated on the status of the 16-month construction progress via a flier.

“The end result will be great — you just gotta hope that you can survive until then,” Nadel said.

Comments? E-mail angie@miamisunpost.com.