TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa business owners are continuing to deal with construction closures affecting their customers.

What You Need To Know

  • Some Tampa businesses say they are losing customers due to road work

  • The owners of Jug & Bottle Dept. say they lost business on Valentine’s Day due to Hanna Avenue closure by TECO

  • TECO says they will have better communication with businesses going forward

When Ryan Fouche opened his shop last week, he was looking forward to a big day. Valentine’s Day is always a busy one at Jug & Bottle Dept. on Hanna Avenue.

“We do a lot of wine. And beer. It’s usually a busy and bustling day,” Fouche said.

Except this year, Hanna Avenue was unexpectedly closed because of road construction, blocking off his store.

“They closed off our parking completely. And the contractors were parked in all of our spaces,” Fouche said.

He immediately thought of King State, the café Spectrum Bay News 9 reported on last month, that has lost business due to months of road closures on Floribraska Avenue.

“After seeing what happened with King State, we were a little on edge when we came by and saw a full road closure,” Fouche said.

It turns out the closure on Hanna Avenue was for a TECO project. The full closure only lasted a day, but the roadwork continues there.

Fouche says he would have preferred a heads up from TECO and the city of Tampa, especially on what should have been a busy day.

“I’m not here to upend infrastructure progress or anything like that. I would just like to know,” Fouche said.

He also said that representatives from the city and TECO did reach out the next day to apologize and said the road would be open.

But going forward, he and other business owners say they would prefer to know beforehand.

“All we’re asking for is a little bit of outreach. A little bit of communication,” Fouche said.

TECO officials told Spectrum Bay News 9 they will have better communication with businesses going forward.

They said the roadwork on Hanna Avenue is to install underground power lines. While work will take a few more months to complete, a full road closure is not expected again.

Fouche said he’s thankful to those in the Seminole Heights community who still came to the store during the road closure.

“If we didn’t have the community support, it would’ve been devastating for us,” Fouche said.