Jessica George
Despite a drop in visiting tourists, some local businesses still had a good summer season thanks to a number of construction projects, including the bio-mass boiler, the new youth detention facility, and repairs to roads and the Noden Causeway.
While motorists may not have liked the congestion, detours, and delays, the owners of places like Gartch’s International Pub, the Makabi Inn, Mid-Town Motel, and La Place Rendez-Vous certainly weren’t complaining.
“We’re lucky to have construction, to tell you the truth,” said Jack Mutz, owner/operator of the Mid-Town Motel. “The tourism trade wasn’t as good this year.
“Construction fit in just right,” he added.
The Mid-Town reported roughly 30-40 percent of its revenue came from construction workers booking rooms.
Over at the Makabi Inn, a whopping 70-80 percent of its business was attributed to construction.
La Place Rendez-Vous said while room bookings were only slightly affected compared to the downtown motels, its dining room definitely saw a good turnout in the evenings.
“You notice when there’s a lot of activity in town, whether it’s from construction or increased business activity,” noted Rendez-Vous owner Paul Noonan. “Obviously these people need to go out, they like to go out at night, and they need accommodations.
Gartch’s International Pub on Scott Street said nearly all of its afternoon business came from the workers at the bio-mass boiler construction site.
Kristy Brenna, who works at Gartch’s, said they had very little to no business in the afternoon before the construction workers came to town.
While the pub does see quite a few locals, afternoons traditionally were so slow it didn’t even seem necessary to stay open during those mid-day hours.
But once the bio-mass boiler construction picked up, Gartch’s began doing very well in the afternoons as that was the time when the workers got off their shift.
Brenna even said the construction workers served as great advertising as they would talk about the food and the service, convincing more and more people to show up there every day.
But now that construction workers are starting to head home, Gartch’s already has had to start cutting back its afternoon schedule.
“The nights won’t be affected, but the afternoons definitely will be,” she predicted.
Brenna noted the pub currently is brainstorming ways to pick that business back up.
At the Makabi Inn, owner Patrick Gyles recalled he typically had good bookings from fishermen on Fridays in May and June. But from June to October, he’s had steady week-long bookings from construction workers.
“Without them we’d have to close down,” he remarked.
If construction workers weren’t in town, “it certainly wouldn’t help,” echoed Mutz, adding he would guess all restaurants and hotels benefited from the high volume of construction work that went on here this past summer.
