Getting down the 700 and 800 blocks of Granby Street on foot is its own kind of obstacle course these days. The construction cuts deep into the roadway, narrowing traffic to a single flow on one side while crews dig into hundred-year-old water systems and pipes on the other. What was once a stretch of Norfolk built on foot traffic now sees almost none.
Inside Stark and Legum, a men’s clothing store, the register sits quietly. The owners stand behind it, passing the time in conversation, waiting for customers who aren't coming in. Next door, Sonia Newell is locking up early, headed to a vendor event at Nauticus instead of waiting on walk-ins. She says her juice bar isn't the business it was before the city started tearing up the street outside her door.
It's a scene playing out across Granby Street’s NEON District as Norfolk’s Streetscape Project continues.
Last month, the Norfolk Economic Development Authority approved a resolution providing up to $10,000 per business to help offset losses tied to the project, which has torn up Granby Street between East Brambleton Avenue and East Virginia Beach Boulevard for the past two years and now isn’t expected to be finished until late 2028.
Several businesses have closed along that stretch since the work began, including the Virginia Furniture Company that had been there for 20 years. The owner of Cardinal Skate Shop, Jason Hawkes told local media the disruption from the public works project was a big part of why he shut the shop’s doors this spring after a decade on Granby Street.The new grant covers rent, mortgage, and utility expenses incurred between January and June 2026, and requires applicants to show proof of revenue loss during the project period, as well as an active lease or mortgage and business license dated on or before January 1, 2026.
Applications are open now and close July 17, with awards expected to be finalized at the EDA's August meeting.
For Michael Benton, who owns Stark and Legum, one of the oldest businesses in the district, the grant is a help, but not a fix.
"I think it's a basic temporary type deal," Benton said. "We had some businesses that were complaining that the $10,000 wasn't enough, but then again, whatever they can work with us and do what they need to do to help us, I'll take it."
Benton said foot traffic on his stretch of Granby Street has largely disappeared since construction started, though the city's decision to open the former Greyhound bus station as alternate parking has helped some customers reach his store.
Newell, the owner of Granby Street Glow Juice Bar, said the grant doesn't line up with the timing of her losses.
"We're super appreciative that the city has worked hard to find a stipend to help us, but we're in the busiest time of the year for juice bars and restaurants in general," Newell said. "The stipend is very much needed and very much appreciated, but I don't know how it will help me finish the end of the year, because the amount that we're receiving is maybe a little shy of what my monthly obligations are."
Newell said Glow Juice Bar has been open since December 2024 and saw a brief uptick in activity during a pause in construction earlier this year, but traffic dropped again within days of work resuming in June, the same month she says she learned the grant program was moving forward.
Denise McClung, who took over Tender Heart Tattoo in October 2024, compared her business revenue from last year to this year over the same stretch to show how construction has hurt her shop.
"From June 1st to June 10th of 2025, I made $6,000 more than I did from June 1st to June 10th of this year," McClung said.
McClung said the timing has been especially difficult because June, Pride Month, is typically her busiest stretch of the year as a queer-owned business. She said newer tattoo artists still building a client base at her shop have been hit harder than more established ones with steady clientele.
Both Newell and McClung raised questions about how the city notified businesses about the grant. In a statement to WHRO, the city said door-to-door and email outreach was attempted to all NEON district businesses in late June and early July to notify them of the opportunity.
McClung said she received an email from the city stating outreach had been attempted at her shop in person.
"It was on a Tuesday; we have always been closed on Tuesdays, and so in the email it was said we must have missed you, which was interesting," McClung said.
Newell said she isn't aware of door-to-door outreach at her shop either, and said she learned details about the grant by calling the city herself multiple times a week.
Both McClung and Newell said better, more consistent communication from the city, not just about the grant but about construction timelines generally, would help businesses plan. The original timeline projected the seven-phase project would end in the Winter of 2027.
The NEON District Streetscape Project is now expected to continue through 2028.
