Uptown Businesses Welcome Hennepin's Return After Two Hard Years

When Hennepin Avenue South fully reopened on Oct. 31 after roughly 18 months of construction closures and detours, its business owners were among the most relieved people on the corridor. Uptown's main commercial street, which carries more than 240 businesses, was whole again after a roughly $36 million rebuild, its first major reconstruction in more than 65 years.

Prolonged street construction is especially hard on the small, independent businesses that depend on people walking by, stopping in and finding it easy to park. Fencing, blocked sidewalks, dust and rerouted traffic erode all of that, and unlike a national chain, a local shop often has little cushion to absorb a year and a half of depressed sales. Stan Pryor, owner of Autopia auto repair, said the project cut his business by 60% and that the reopening came too late to undo the damage.

Uptown's commercial troubles predated the orange cones. The neighborhood had lost anchor tenants and weathered broader retail shifts before reconstruction began in spring 2024, and the rebuild added a sustained stress on top of those headwinds. Since the work started, quite a few businesses on or near Hennepin closed.

The reopening restores the access and visibility those businesses lost, along with wider sidewalks, new crossings, calmer traffic and the METRO E Line bus rapid transit service that opened Dec. 6. Sarah Rust, manager of the Spectacle Shoppe near Hennepin and 24th Street, said the cones coming off ended a long stretch of customers struggling to find the store. Judy Longbottom of the UPS store at 28th and Hennepin expected two-way traffic to help the area, while Mumtaz Osman of Osman Cleaners, on the corridor 35 years, worried the lost parking would hurt.

The city served 36 corridor businesses through its Business Technical Assistance Program from 2023 to 2025. The most direct way residents can support the recovery is to shop and dine on the rebuilt corridor, especially at the independents that weathered the project. Whether the redesigned street delivers enough new foot traffic to justify the disruption is the question the next year or two will answer.