Emory Village Construction Affecting Local Businesses

Motorists are not the only ones who have been inconvenienced by recent road construction in Emory Village. 

Neighborhood business owners indicated that the ongoing building of a traffic circle in the heart of the Village has hurt their bottom lines. 

“We banked a lot of money to get through tough times,” said owner Andy Kurlansky.  “This was even slower than our worst fears.”

The construction forced Everybody’s to close their parking lot, and shut down access to the restaurant from South Oxford Road. 

Elenore Hundly, a manager at Everybody’s, said that the restaurant’s management prepared for the construction by putting up big signs to assure customers that they remained open. 

“As soon as they broke ground we put the signs up,” she said. 

Despite the signage, Everybody’s was forced to cut staff hours to deal with the business they lost during construction. 

Kurlansky said he hoped the sacrifices paid off in the long term.

“We’re excited and optimistic,” he said.  “We think (the traffic circle) will be good for Emory Village.” 

owner Dale Donchey said that the construction wiped out his morning rush hour business, but remained confident it would ultimately benefit his coffee shop.

“It didn’t really affect us too much, except for early morning stuff,” he said.  “It’s going to look great.”

owner Shane Mixon indicated that the construction hurt his business just when he could least afford to absorb a loss in profit.  Saba only recently reopened after closing down for a year because of a fire.  

Still, he held out hope that the project would benefit his business down the road. 

“Hopefully long term it will be nice,” he said.  “Hopefully we’ll still be here to enjoy it.” 

According to the Alliance to Improve Emory Village website, the construction costs total $2.1 million.  In addition to the traffic circle, a new park will be built on the corner of North Decatur and South Oxford Roads. The project is slated to finish this summer. 

Dekalb County transportation officials were not reachable for comment.