Local businesses along Queen St. W. are frustrated as construction is set to cause upheaval in the area for the second straight summer.

After nearly eight months of road work last year because of water main replacement, the city announced that it will tear up parts of Queen, between Bathurst St. and Spadina Ave., starting Monday and going into late fall.

The project is a multi-million dollar collaboration between the city and the Queen St. West Business Improvement Area, which promises to replace the damaged sidewalk on both sides of the street, install 15 new trees, and create two parkettes on Denison and Ryerson Aves.

Owners who had their sales seriously impacted by last summer’s work are apprehensive about what will happen to their profits.

“I feel awful,” said Fara Shalechi, the owner of Old Times Antiques, near Queen and Portland St. “It’s going to be worse now because last time at least I had a sidewalk.”

Summer is a busy time for the little shops on Queen St. W., many of which are independently owned.

“This is the season, this is the tourist time,” said Shalechi. “When summer is gone, winter is here, your door is closed and you’re dead.”

Shamez Amlani, the owner of nearby La Palette restaurant, and the chair of the Queen St. West BIA, said the project will have a positive impact on the neighbourhood going forward.

“The idea is to build something beautiful and amazing that’s going to be good for the street in the long run and bring people to the neighbourhood for decades to come,” Amlani said.

He also recognizes that there is no way around the sidewalk replacement.

“Queen St. was under construction for water main work, the streets are kind of a disaster. It has to be done, that’s the bottom line.”

To avoid inconveniencing the area’s residents and businesses, the city is taking a different approach to construction this summer.

“The sidewalk replacement will be done on a block-by-block basis,” said Councillor Joe Cressy (Ward 20 Trinity-Spadina). “It’s slightly more expensive but it will lessen the impact.”

Amlani said his restaurant saw a significant drop in sales, with at least 10 per cent lower profits, when the street was fenced off last summer. He expects that his business may suffer again when the construction is directly in front of the restaurant, but believes that once the pain of construction is over, the entire area will benefit.

Lorne Anderson, a manager at Duke’s Cycles near Queen and Bathurst, is frustrated not just with the state of the sidewalk but also the prospect of a second straight summer of construction outside the store. He said business was particularly slow last July, and they had few walk-in customers.

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“I’m afraid to see my grandmother walk down here. You can turn your hip easily,” said Anderson.

Still, Amlani said that this time around the construction won’t blanket the entire street for months on end. Construction will start on the southwestern side of the area at Bathurst, he said, and the BIA will be “watching closely.”

He is confident that once everything is in place, the area will be much more enjoyable.

Cressy agrees.

“It’s a project that’s going to transform Queen,” he said.