Business owners on Park Lane aren’t worried about being blocked off by construction. They’re more worried that their regular customers won’t know that.
Park Lane’s design was approved by the Kirkland City Council during their Sept. 2 meeting. It is designed to act as a plaza-style street with a red and beige brick paver surface. Construction is tentatively set to begin in January, according to Christian Knight, neighborhood services coordinator for the city of Kirkland.
In the meantime, the city has reached out to business owners in order to address concerns about how construction could affect customer access to their entrances. Knight stated that walkways will be set up so customers will have full access at all times. Using brick pavers instead of concrete will allow them to do construction during the winter, when most of the businesses will be the least impacted, though some receive year-round customers.
“They (businesses) have directly influenced not only what we build but how we build it,” Knight said.
The city will be looking at pre-bids this fall. For Adam Olson, the Vice President of wholesale for Rococo Coffee Roasting, this is the most important piece of information. The company doing the actual construction, he said, is the one who will determine how the coffee shop is impacted.
“Our stance is that there’s not much to talk about until the contractor has put out the schedule,” he said.
For some business owners, however, the problem won’t be the lack of access but how appearances might ward off normal customers.
Fabrizio Loi, the owner of Ristorante Paradiso, said it is important to get the message out to Kirkland residents that they can still come to Park Lane and not be scared off by the fences and construction equipment.
“It has to be seen as a great thing,” he said. “It will improve the city of Kirkland. They (customers) shouldn’t let anything get in the way of visiting their favorite business.”
The main aspects of the design includes identifying underground utilities, trees and possible reconfiguration of the parking lot at Lake Street.
During construction, the road will be blocked off, which Knight said will have limited impact on traffic.
