PORTLAND, Maine — Taj Sanders and his cannabis dispensary, Sweetspot, are at a prime location in downtown Portland.
Situated right at the northwestern corner of High and Congress Streets, Sanders told NEWS CENTER Maine that business has been good since opening in November.
"It's a great location, I guess you can say it's a sweet spot," Sanders said. "It's been great, a wonderful industry to get into."
But the recent closure of Free Street is showing a sign of what's to come.
The Free Street closure is the first phase in a four-phase plan to revitalize the five-way intersection at Congress Square in Portland. The targeted end date for the project is late 2023, but the actual completion date is in limbo as the Free Street phase is indefinitely delayed due to "unforeseen utility conflicts," as the City of Portland described in a memo sent to businesses.
The closure of Free Street was set to reopen to car traffic on June 14.
"Additional underground work is needed by multiple parties to ensure this portion of construction can be safely completed," the memo read.
As of Monday, NEWS CENTER Maine reached out to the City of Portland to find out a new completion date but was told more information would be available Tuesday.
The next phase in the project is supposed to block off Congress Square Park and last around a month.
Lawrence Preston, who experiences homelessness and sleeps at Congress Square Park, told NEWS CENTER Maine that planning for a new place to stay is difficult and complicates things further now that Free Street is closed indefinitely.
"I'm going to have to find another place to sleep and I won't go to the shelter because I don't like what goes on there ... So I just have to find another street or a bus stop down there ... I only sleep for a few hours anyway," Preston said.
Once Congress Square Park is reopened, the third phase will work on sidewalks on the northwestern corner of High and Congress Streets, right where Sweetspot is located.
Sanders says he welcomes construction projects but hopes it doesn't deplete foot traffic to his business.
"I think it's definitely going to present some difficulties, about 98% of our business is walk-in traffic, so that will be a bit of an eye sore and obstacle for people to get to my front door, but if it's for the greater good then let's just get through this together," Sanders said.
Sanders said he never saw notices that the construction is scheduled to come to his storefront later this summer.
"The message hasn't gotten to me personally," Sanders said. "It would be nice to get this notification, even just as a sticker on my front door would be helpful especially if we're getting these delays. It would be great to find out when my business is affected."
Sweetspot's neighbor, Hello1p, has been open for three months and has reported dwindling sales.
"I'm not sure if it's the construction or the lack of people coming to the city this summer but [I] definitely noticed my sales in the last two weeks have gone down," Annie Sheret, owner of Hello1p, told NEWS CENTER Maine.
Sheret said if construction projects take business away from her store, surviving the year will be difficult.
"It scares me so much because I did this all myself, I am a woman-owned business so it was already hard to get this thing going for myself. To hear something is going to impact it is terrifying, to be honest with you," Sheret said.
The Congress Square redesign project is set to be completed by November 2023.