Black-owned businesses on Cascade Road say construction delays are crippling them

When Trinket Lewis opened the yellow and green storefront of MoreLyfe Juice Co. on a once-busy stretch of Cascade Road in June 2022, the community was excited. In 2023, she averaged more than 950 customers a month coming to her shop.

But just three years later, she said that number has fallen by more than half, to about 380 customers a month. Lewis said the decline is because of construction and project delays that have closed parts of a two-mile stretch of Cascade for more than two years and choked off vital traffic that would bring customers to businesses like hers. Now, she’s fighting to stay open.

“We need the community to show up,” Lewis said. “But the community can’t show up if they can’t get to us.”

Views of Nourish + Bloom and MoreLyfe Juice Co., small businesses located within the Cascade Heights Business District in Atlanta shown on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. Many business owners in the area say years of construction along Cascade Road and delays have had a negative impact on sales. (Natrice Miller/AJC)

And she’s not alone. On a scorching Tuesday afternoon, business owners, community members and Ambassador Andrew Young braved the heat to implore the city to help them weather the issues caused by the city’s infrastructure project. They pointed to how the city allocated $7.5 million for businesses affected by last summer’s water main breaks. They have started a petition asking the city for an economic recovery fund of at least $8 million and transparency on the project.

In August 2021, the City Council approved nearly $21 million in road improvements for 3.5 miles of Cascade, including road resurfacing and re-striping, traffic signal upgrades, improvements to bus stops, extended bike lanes and additional pedestrian safety features.

At the time, Andre Dickens, who is now mayor of Atlanta but was then a council member who chaired the Transportation Committee, said the project was “something the community has asked for now for over a decade, and I’m glad to support the approval of this legislation to get this done. We will help increase safety, mobility and stormwater drainage along this very important corridor in southwest Atlanta.”

The first phase of the project was tentatively set to be complete by spring this year, according to city documents. But business owners say it has been constantly delayed, and they don’t have a clear timeline from the city for when it will be done. They said the only financial support city officials have offered is loans through Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development arm.

“When access is blocked and communication is lacking, the whole community feels it,” said Jilea Hemmings, co-owner of Nourish + Bloom Market on Cascade. “We understand there’s a need for repairs, but we need clear timelines, consistent updates, and most importantly, access from the city and support outside of loans.”

In response to a list of questions asking what Invest Atlanta has offered the business owners, Eloisa Klementich, president and CEO of the agency, said in a written statement: “Invest Atlanta remains committed to supporting small businesses throughout the City of Atlanta, including those along Cascade Road. We will continue to engage with the business owners and local leaders to explore additional pathways of support.”

But businesses are still waiting for construction to end. Community members said the sidewalks were made too wide and the road too narrow, causing problems, and now they have to be redone, prolonging the project even more.

“We saw the street was too narrow way back when, and I don’t know why it took them so long to get it right,” Ambassador Young, who also lives in the area, said Tuesday. He said he would talk to Dickens about the issues.