ATHENS, Ohio — A local business owner is urging Athens residents to a town hall next week to discuss the impact of the loss of local businesses on the city of Athens.
The Local Town Hall will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 22, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Athens Community Center, 701 E. State St. The event is organized by Grassroots Ohioans, according to a press release.
Cool Digs Rock Shop Owner Saraquoia Bryant, who helped organize the town hall, hopes people come to the town hall with “open minds” and “solutions.”
According to a press release, the town hall will focus on recent business closures, the role of small businesses in the community, “accountability and the city administration,” sustainability and more.
Bryant said she’d like to see some “actionable outcomes” from the meeting, including a less “apathetic” city administration that doesn’t give “away all of our taxes and all of our stuff to out-of-state developers, and not giving anything back to the little mom-and-pop stores that make up our community.”
Bryant hopes the meeting brings about a better understanding of why businesses are closing in Athens, “what’s happening in our community, how people feel about it.”
While public officials are encouraged to attend, Bryant hopes the town hall engages the average Athens resident.
“This is about community,” Bryant said. “It’s not about a hierarchy, because our hierarchy and our elected [officials] are not necessarily making choices that are [for] the community.”
Bryant said her experience with the neighboring Lostro building project, and speaking with other small business owners, has driven her to take action, including organizing the town hall.
“We want functional construction,” she said.
Bryant has appeared before Athens City Council several times to complain that repeated sidewalk closures for the Lostro project are damaging her business. Bryant said her Uptown business has suffered major losses, and she has reduced hours at that location and a shop on East State Street in order to maintain payroll. She also has told council that the sidewalk closures are behind the closures of Grub ‘n Go and Jack Neal Floral.
“I have to stick up for myself,” Bryant said. “I would have gone under just like my neighbors.”
Bryant said home rule and ballot initiatives are ways that residents could exercise more influence over their city. She also suggested implementing community benefit agreements that would legally bind parties, such as the city and developers, to ensure development adheres to community interests, with consequences for any violations.
Athens sees rash of business closures in 2024, 2025
The town hall comes on the heels of several high-profile local business closures over the past year. Those closures include several longtime businesses: Jack Neal Floral, the Import House and Ambassador Laundry.
While alarming to some, Athens Area Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Kristin Miller said that the closures are nothing new.
“We see this happen every couple of years … where there’s just a rash of closings, and when they happen all at the same time,” Miller told the Independent in a December 2024 interview. “Obviously that does worry a lot of folks.”
Miller attributed the rash of closings to several factors.
For one thing, “Real estate prices are really high,” Miller said. “Rental prices in the commercial and residential market are both very high. That could be a factor for some.”
Businesses also may be affected by changes in behavior and expectations since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic “changed the way that a lot of people did business,” including in Athens, she said. Some businesses “completely changed their model” because of the pandemic, she said. Meanwhile, more people are working from home, which means they’re not buying lunch or meeting up after work.
But Union Street construction — both Uptown and on West Union — also had a big impact in 2024, Miller said.
“There are some struggles … when their [businesses’] streets are shut down for construction for months at a time — that does have an impact,” Miller said. “And we’ve seen that on several of our roadways.”
Although the infrastructure changes are necessary, Miller said, the effect on businesses can linger well after the orange barrels are removed.
“Our Union Street folks definitely continue to struggle, now that it’s open two ways,” Miller said. “You have to retrain the public to change their travel pattern again because they’ve spent, unfortunately, so many months avoiding that area.”
The impact of the city’s sewer improvements on West Union street has prompted major concern — and scrutiny — from businesses located on that street.
Kenneth Oehlers, executive director at Habitat for Humanity of Southeast Ohio, told the Independent in a December 2024 email that the Habitat for Humanity ReStore on West Union “took a substantial hit during the W. Union St. construction project.”
“Over the entire project, we lost over $70,000 in sales compared to the prior year, which resulted in a 45-50% decrease in gross sales,” Oehlers said in an email. “Since the opening of the road to two lane traffic (ours was only open to two [lane] traffic in the last several weeks), we have seen sales begin to climb to where we expected them to be.”
Over the past year, other business owners on West Union St. have publicly stated that they incurred major losses in business due to road construction.
While business closures sound the alarm for a local economy, “Some of our businesses are doing fantastic, and some are really struggling,” Miller said.
Miller said noted that “a lot of small businesses” have opened in Athens over the past year.
The chamber acquired 13 new members in 2024, Miller said. (The chamber accepts members from any business serving the Athens area, not just within the city of Athens.) In an email, Miller listed an additional six new nonmember businesses she was aware of.
Opened
Uptown
- Big Run Kava Bar, 72 N. Court St. (June 2024)
- The Side Bar, 24 E. State St. (April 2024)
East State
- Chipotle and Starbucks, 960 E. State St. (December 2024).
- Shop CGI, 728 E State St. (September 2024).
- Dr. May’s Thai Kitchen, 333 E. State St. (January 2024).
- Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, 996 E. State St. (September 2024).
- Deep Dive Games, 908 E. State St. (August 2024).
- Hot Box Chicken Fingers & Tots, 74 N Court St. (November 2024).
West Union:
- Mauvette’s Caribbean Cuisine, 540 W. Union St. Suite G (Storefront opened July 2024)
Closed/Closing:
- Park’s Place, Athens and Amesville locations (early 2024).
- Ciró Italian Kitchen & Bar, 120 W. Union St. (April 2024).
- Ambassador Laundry, 12 W. Stimson Avenue (early 2024).
- Import House, 68 N. Court St. (October 2024).
- Athena Grand, 1008 E State St. (announced November 2024, last day of business Jan. 5).
- Sol Island Bar and Grill, 700 E. State St. (announced November, last day of business Dec. 22, 2024).
- Jack Neal Floral, 15 W. Union St. (currently going out of business).
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