Shortly after the letter went out, demolition began; storefront sidewalks on the south side of Commerce Street were fenced in and the streets reduced to rubble. The work has moved to the other side of the street now, forcing businesses to work around the construction zone as they struggle to maintain a flow of customers.
“I’m at the mercy of the project,” says Pete Zotos, owner of St. Pete’s Dancing Marlin. “We haven’t seen how bad it’s truly gonna be yet.”
St. Pete’s, at the corner of Commerce and Crowdus streets, has already been affected by the decreased parking options and lack of foot traffic.
“I’m scared,” Zotos says. “I’m lucky because I’m on the corner, but it’s not going to be easy.”
Twisted Root's Commerce location is resorting to cutting employees' hours because of slow business.
Simon Pruitt
“They’re putting us to the brink where we’re barely able to let our employees survive,” she says. As a salaried employee, Walker has been forced to work extra hours to save money after paying part-time workers for the slow shifts.
“I’ve been having to work open-to-close,” she says. “People who are scheduled till 4 have to leave by 1. It’s been horrible.”
Twisted Root has been scrambling to find efficient solutions to the problem, including closing the restaurant an hour early to conserve money.
People at Cane Rosso, across the street from Twisted Root, have been outspoken about their grievances with the construction on social media.
In September they posted a photo of the front of their restaurant with a message: “In what can only be described as a piece of complete buck-futtery of near-cosmic proportions that the universe/City of Dallas hath thrust upon Cane Rosso (and Deep Ellum, in general), Commerce Street is a total disaster area right now, and we have people out there thinking we are closed.”
The photo demonstrates how a passerby could easily assume Cane Rosso is closed for construction.
“A number of businesses have already vacated Deep Ellum over the past year,” the post continues. “We’d certainly hate to join that growing list!”
Jeff Amador with PILF, the parent group of Cane Rosso, likens the situation to when the Tiger King famously bemoaned, "I'm never going to financially recover from this."
"Yeah, that," Amador told the Observer. "We honestly don't know if Cane Rosso, a longtime staple of Deep Ellum, is going to make it out of this project, as we still have at least two more years of our access streets being torn up."
He confirms they've had to cut their labor, and says it's difficult to make the restaurant seem like a "hip and happening place" when there are only a few workers and a few guests in at a time.
The Deep Ellum Foundation (DEF) is well aware of this trend. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit works with local businesses to improve the neighborhood and has been behind some of its largest developments in recent years. DEF Executive President Stephanie Hudiburg says the group has consulted with the affected businesses regarding the design of the new sidewalks and is helping produce temporary signage that can be displayed over the construction barriers.
"We work with the businesses weekly and host a meeting monthly with the construction project managers to help the businesses stay on top of what is going on and troubleshoot issues," she says.
In September 2024, Dallas City Councilmember Jesse Moreno, who represents Deep Ellum, told NBC 5 that he would work to "connect business owners with the City of Dallas staff for small grant funding opportunities."
Moreno said in a statement to the Dallas Observer on Jan. 9 that work in Deep Ellum is necessary to improve long-ignored infrastructure and will greatly improve traffic flow in Deep Ellum.
"This project also builds on the work identified in the 2012 and 2017 bond programs, which received significant community input," Moreno added. He says he understands the hardship these improvements are bringing to local businesses.
As for those funding opportunities — that hasn't come through.
"I had reviewed the possibility of using funding from the Small Business Center, which has unfortunately been discontinued by City leadership. I am optimistic that we will revive such programs soon, and it is my hope that we can utilize this necessary City resource for the vulnerable Deep Ellum business community," Moreno wrote in his statement.
Westlake Brewing has taken a slightly lighter stance on the construction.
“I’m not excited about the possibility of just shy of 1,000 days of construction outside my front door," says owner Art Harvey. "However, I am still very positive towards the eventual outcome.”
Early in the project, the crew accidentally broke a water main, resulting in disruptions to Westlake and many other businesses.
“We’ve shifted our brewing production process and schedule to be less dependent on a consistent water supply,” he says.
Despite the incident, Harvey says that the negative impact on his business hasn’t been as bad as he expected.
“I’m finding that most of our regular customers already expect to park a few blocks away and walk to us, and our tourists take an Uber to our door,” Harvey says.
At times, he takes a positive note.
“I’ve even had a couple of people tell me that they’ve driven right by our door for years on their daily commute, and they finally noticed that a brewery was right here while sitting in traffic on Commerce due to the construction,” Harvey says.
The city has stated that the estimated completion date for this project is November 2026, just over two years after its starting date. These next two years will be a test of resilience for local businesses forced to improvise and adapt.
“I’m excited about the wider sidewalks, two-way traffic and slowing cars down to make the neighborhood more pedestrian-friendly,” Harvey says. “I just wish it was something closer to three months of construction instead of 30 months.”
