Bryan businesses struggling because of construction on South College Avenue

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – The construction on South College Avenue in Bryan has been underway for over a year, impacting local businesses along the road.

Vortex Studios, a local business along South College Avenue and Bizzell Street, says because the construction has blocked its front entrance, he’s losing customers to the reroute.

Victor Lucio owns Vortex Studios and says he’s lost customers since the construction on South College Avenue started.

“The majority of our income was coming in through foot traffic and with no foot traffic it has made it extremely difficult,” said Lucio.

Lucio says the construction has made it hard to keep his business afloat and he’s tired.

“Found myself worn out because I’ve had to find many creative ways to try to bring business in and try to let people know we are here without that foot traffic,” said Lucio.

In order to keep the business, Lucio is hosting two fundraisers.

One fundraiser is an all-day event open to the public on August 10th at 2609 S. College Ave in Bryan. If you would like to donate click here.

General Manager of Ray Criswell Distributing Company on South College Avenue and Howard Street, Dawna Adams, said since the construction has started, everyone coming to the business has to reroute to enter.

“We have to completely re-route where we are going and some of it’s much harder because we got the medians on the other side, the middle medians where we can’t turn one way or another. So it’s a little navigation there,” said Adams.

Adams said the damage left behind from the construction includes pot holes on the entrance of the driveway, occasional blocked drain pipes that flood the warehouse when it rains, and they had to pay to remove dirt buildup from the site that clogged their downspouts.

Sam Vernon, the Assistant City Engineer with the city of Bryan, says despite the delay earlier in the year, the concrete pavement from West Villa Maria Road to Dellwood Street will be completed by the end of August.

“Sometimes it doesn’t look like to the public that a lot is not getting done, I call it the ice burg effect where what you see on the surface really does not reflect everything that has to be done,” said Vernon.

The South College Avenue Reconstruction Project is still expected to be done by July 2025.

“I can understand people’s frustration, it’s a long project, it’s a project the city is spending about 60 million dollars in this area to improve, again there are a lot of moving parts and at the conclusion, it is going to be a great place,” said Vernon.

The city of Bryan says if you have questions or concerns about the project, they have a monthly letter that is mailed out to each of the property owners in the area and those letters can be accessed here.