Free parking along part of Front Street aimed to help businesses impacted by construction

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A months-long downtown Wilmington construction project is finally nearing completion, but the impacts it had on local businesses will likely continue being felt for awhile.

Two blocks of Front Street have been under work since the spring and has prevented parking in front of businesses along the section of road.

Business owners have expressed concern the construction has impacted their customer numbers.

“Since I do work down here, I’ve been working here for about a year now. We have seen a big decrease in the foot traffic and everything because of the construction, so I think parking being free is a good thing overall. I hope the continue it into the near year. That would be great,” said Java Dog Employee, Claudia Dimitri. 

Now, the City of Wilmington is trying to help those negatively impacted by the road work.

“We realize that it created hardships for some of these small businesses downtown, and we are very sympathetic to that. So, we’ve been looking for ways to help them out as much as we can, given the circumstances. One thing we realized that we can do is hold off on placing the parking meters on these two blocks,” said Jennifer Dandron with the City of Wilmington  

New parking meters will be installed by the City of Wilmington along both blocks by early 2023. For now, parking in the 200 block (between Chestnut and Grace Streets) and the 300 block (between Grace and Walnut Streets) is free, with an enforced two-hour limit.

Once the meters are fully installed next month, the parking will become paid-parking.