Construction on a new streetscape planned for Detroit's Avenue of Fashion is choking traffic to businesses there and causing major headaches for shop owners.

Work on the Livernois project started in May, and business owners are beginning to feel the impact of lost sales, with the staple restaurant Kuzzo's Chicken and Waffles choosing to close during construction and others facing the possibility of permanent closure. The impact on businesses is prompting the city to put together marketing programs to boost local shops — a move business owners say they wished happened sooner.

Kuzzo's closed Sunday until November, or whenever construction is done, said owner Ron Bartell. He had planned to renovate the kitchen at the end of summer but decided to push the project up while business is down.

"We hadn't planned on closing now, but with the construction and the impact it has had on businesses in the area, we just thought it would be in our best interest to do the renovations now."

Bartell said he is investing $150,000 to $200,000 to overhaul the kitchen with new equipment to make it more efficient. He said he'll use the closure as an opportunity to improve overall operations of the restaurant as he looks to scale the business and open more locations in the city.

The city says construction will wrap up at the end of November, with some related landscaping work finishing in the spring.

"We're going to take this time and look at everything we're doing, from staffing to training to see how we can put out a better product," Bartell said. "The goal is not to just do one (restaurant). We want to do multiple and do it well."

Grosse Pointe Park-based Urban Alterscape is the general contractor for the renovation.

One of Bartell's tenants, Narrow Way Café & Shop, is also facing potential closure, but with the possibility of not reopening if business keeps declining. Sales at the coffee shop, which opened in 2017, are down 40-45 percent from the same time last year, said co-owner Jonathan Merritt. He said after a private investment of "a couple hundred grand" to open, they were left with no liquid capital to survive a large business downturn they hadn't predicted.

"Summertime for us is our best month because of the walkability on the street and the weather," Merritt said. "Our whole business model is giving people a stress-free experience. Right now, we are having a hard time getting the people here to even have that."