Bruce B. Downs Traffic Helps, Hurts Area Businesses

It doesn't take someone with a master's degree in business to realize the economy is still in the dumps.

Florida, the Tampa Bay area in particular, has been especially stung for some period of time.

No one knows this better than businessowners. A few of those with shops set up along Bruce B. Downs Boulevard recently spoke with Patch about how things are going.

For somes, business was going well, thanks in part to the holiday season.

Owning a business on Bruce B. Downs presents its own unique challenges. One of them is to stick out among the dozens if not hundreds of other shop owners. Another obstacle is the seemingly perpetual construction on Bruce B. Downs, which has made a heavily used road frequently resemble a parking lot.

Felize Rivera of , 15309 Amberly Lane, located in The Shops at Amberly shopping center, has noticed that when traffic along the road is at its worst, it can actually be a good thing.

"People get stuck in traffic and see our panel" on the center's business listing "and stop in," Rivera said.

Rivera, whose family owns the place which specializes in fresh Mexican fare, admits the holiday season may be the slow time for them. Her family's restaurant gets a lot of students from the University of South Florida and with the semester now over, so too has the customer flow dropped.

Rivera hopes that whenever construction on Bruce B. Downs comes to a halt, it should help.

"Some people avoid the road altogether because of the traffic," Rivera said.

Cynthia Kozlowski of nearby suggests this is her busiest time of the year, traffic or no traffic.

"We're doing a lot of business because of the holidays," Kozlowski said.

Her business, also located in The Shops at Amberly is both a pottery house where customers can make and design their own pottery, but it also doubles as a coffeehouse, replete with WiFi.

Like Rivera, Kozlowski too hopes a less congested Bruce B. Downs can bring more customers.

The holiday season is not a good time of the year for Colin Hays, who is the proprietor of , 17032 Palm Pointe Drive, just west of the busy Interstate 75/Bruce B. Downs intersection.

Hays couldn't comment about how the construction has affected his shop as he started at the coffee joint after construction had begun.

His busiest time of the year is during the school year and the schools are now on holiday break.

"We would get a lot of students coming in before and after school," Hays said. "We'd also get a lot of parents coming in after they dropped their children off at school."

The Coffee Beanery is close by both Freedom High and Liberty Middle schools.

Construction along Bruce B. Downs is expected to continue at least through 2015. For more information on the ongoing $38 million widening project, which only includes a small segment of the roadway, visit Hillsborough County government online.