Stores along Union Street in Traverse City say their customers have limited parking.
TRAVERSE CITY -- Mike Deering who owns Maxbauer Specialty Meats on Union Street says construction of the Old Town parking deck is affecting his customers.
"A lot of confusion, people just can't seem to find the entrance either off Lake Avenue or the entrance behind AT&T. Sometimes they go around the block a couple times or they park on Union," says Deering.
Deering even created a map of the available parking spots for customers behind his store next to the construction site. He's hoping the map will prevent the store from losing business.
"Trying to encourage them to come in because when they do finally get here 95% of the time we do have parking available for them when they do get here," says Deering.
Meanwhile, just down the street employees at Preggers say the parking construction site is also taking a toll on their local and out of town business.
"Lake Street is all torn up so all of the meter parking over there is not available to them so they're not sure exactly where to park," says Preggers store associate, Jamie Moyers.
The store is already going out of business because of the lack of foot traffic with the economy and now this only makes it worse.
"I think the prospect of people having to walk especially now it's getting colder I think a lot of people don't want to walk that far. I think it's not really helping," says Moyers.
Several of the businesses that 7&4 News spoke with on Union Street say although the parking situation is frustrating, the final outcome is well worth it.
"Being a business in old town we don't see the foot traffic as you do on front street. So, hopefully with the parking garage, hopefully it will draw more people here and people will notice that there are shops down here," says Moyers.
"The confusion will go away, it'll be much easier for everyone, should be plenty of parking when the deck is done," says Deering.
Deering says he encourages customers to check their email for the parking maps he's sending out.
The Traverse City Downtown Development Authority says the parking deck will be complete in early September.
