LOVELAND, Colo. — For 15 years, Dana Brungardt and her mom, Sue, have poured their hearts into B Sweet Bakery in downtown Loveland.
“I grew up in this town, my mom grew up in this town," Brungardt told Denver7. "We wanted to put smiles on people's faces."
But these days, the Brungardts have been seeing fewer smiles walk through the front door.
“I would sell out of cupcakes almost every day," Brungardt said. "We'd have moms hanging out in here with kiddos playing at the kids' table. And now, I'm lucky if I see two customers a day, and those people are buying a couple of cupcakes."
The City of Loveland broke ground on the Heart Improvement Plan in February. The project, which is scheduled out in phases, is set to revitalize 19 core blocks of downtown Loveland while replacing century-old stormwater infrastructure.
“It's not a matter of if there's going to be a water line break, it's really when there's going to be a water line break, so getting in to get the water line replaced was really the essential timeline part of this project,” said city engineer Nicole Hahn. “Doing this all under the same closure allowed us to complete this with just one closure for the businesses.”
For B Sweet Cupcakes, though, the last few months have been anything but sweet.
“I think one of the biggest challenges is that people are having a hard time figuring out how to get to us," Brungardt said. "The signage isn't super clear, the gates and fencing [are] confusing."
The Brungardts reached out to Denver7 for answers.
We took those concerns to the Loveland Downtown Development Authority (DDA).
“I'm actually going to disagree with that, because I think the signage has been very clear the whole time,” said DDA executive director Sean Hawkins.
Denver7 asked Hawkins what other steps have been taken to support downtown businesses during this time. He said the DDA has worked to provide more visibility for these businesses during construction and put together an online toolkit for business owners.
“We've been making sure that they're easy to find," he said. "We're promoting through not only our newspaper, but through social media. We're doing numerous events."
According to Hawkins, overall revenue numbers haven’t dropped downtown.
“We're seeing still the same level of support in terms of shopping in downtown that we saw last year before construction started,” he said.
While the overall project won't be done until the end of next year, construction outside the bakery is on track to wrap up this November.
In the meantime, the Brungardts said they're doing their best to stay afloat.
“We have made a point to stay in business through October because we have weddings booked through October, and then we have to evaluate whether or not we can stay through the winter,” said Brungardt, “Getting to see some of these kiddos grow up in front of our eyes, they become like family and we want to continue to have that family of people who enjoy our cupcakes.”
