ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — If you’ve driven or walked around downtown St. Petersburg lately, you’ve likely come across lots of road and sidewalk closures.

While construction is booming right now in downtown, it does come with some concerns for business owners.

Mickey Paleologos, owner of Mickey’s Café on Central Avenue, says the massive projects are costing him customers.

“I’m wedged between two buildings that are going up. Right in the middle of it. So our sidewalks are blocked off. And that’s killing business,” Paleologos said.

Paleologos opened his shop there in 2005. His business has been successful for nearly 20 years, but he says making a profit now is harder than ever.

“I’ve been here long enough to know. I survived the oil spill, the down economy, housing, COVID, everything else. But this? By far worse than any of those,” Paleologos said.

According to StPeteRising.com, there are at least six residential high-rise projects being built as downtown St. Pete continues to thrive and attract new residents. The city of St. Petersburg confirmed there are 48 active construction permits in downtown.

Paleologos is happy to see the progress and the growth. But he also worries about the traffic and parking issues that come with it.

“A lot of my customers will circle around once or twice. By the third time, they can’t find parking and off they go,” Paleologos said.

The St. Pete Downtown Partnership held a meeting last year with city officials to see what can be done, but the closures have remained in place. City officials say that infrastructure improvements are part of these projects. City engineering teams, developers and utilities are working together as part of the process.

Paleologos says many of his fellow business owners just hope they can make it through the work to see if the influx of new residents can help their bottom line.

“The sidewalks will be open again and traffic will flow through here like it did before. We’ll just have to wait and see,” Paleologos said.