TOLEDO, Ohio — The city of Toledo is offering help for businesses that lose customers because of construction.
Applications are open for the Legacy Corridor Business Resilience Grant, recently approved by city council, which gives $5,000 to small businesses.
The city's economic development department will be looking at businesses on Broadway Street from Western Avenue to Stebbins Street.
"It's intended to help support the cost of operating expenses while foot traffic is down based on the impact of the road construction," said April Welch, the city's deputy director of economic development.
Welch said the city wants to make the program permanent moving forward to help businesses when similar major road projects are done.
"Significant road projects that involve removal of curbs and longer-term type of projects," she explained.
Employees and owners of some businesses say they are just now recovering from road work in their area and that some financial relief would be great for them after facing significant losses.
"It suffered a little bit because they gave us an end date of October and then it extended for six months which is kind of crazy," said Leslie Thomas, who works at the Lewis Animal Hospital in west Toledo.
Thomas said the prolonged construction that took place on Lewis Avenue for more than a year in 2023 massively impacted their business.
"Not only just the commute to work, but our clients being able to get here," Thomas added. "Sometimes they'd park in the driveway, shutting down the water to where we weren't able to see appointments that day."
The businesses report they lost around $25,000-50,000 that year compared to previous years.
Romel Maayah, who works at Awesome Tire Shop & Auto Repair on Lewis Avenue, said the business lost out on about one-quarter of their finances and what they'd typically see in a year.
"In sales, in general about $150,000, somewhere along that area," Maayah said, explaining how much the business was financially impacted.
Maayah and Thomas both said that while $5,000 would be appreciated, it would not make that much of a difference.
The program has $100,000 in total to allocate. Eligible businesses must meet certain criteria, including having been in operation for at least six months before the start of the road construction.
According to the city, businesses will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis until funds run out.