Downtown Prince George executive director Colleen Van Mook is welcoming a partial reopening of the streets surrounding the parkade and condominium development under construction across from city hall.
"It's great news," she said Wednesday.
Traffic can now pass through the intersections at Seventh Avenue and Dominion Street and at Sixth Avenue and George Street, which had been closed to allow workers to upgrade underground services.
Unexpected discoveries of old piping, including a length made out wood, created some extra work.
The development comes just as DPG is to hold Plaid Friday and Small Business Saturday to kick off the holiday shopping season.
"We do understand that the digging up of old infrastructure created some surprises for the city and they've been doing their best of late to try to communicate their timeline and in this case, I think they worked really hard to get the intersection opened because it does really make a difference to the businesses in that area," Van Mook said.
While a pedestrian route is in place, Seventh Avenue from the entrance to city hall to where it meets George Street is still closed to motorized traffic. But Van Mook is applauding the progress made so far.
"It just makes everything far more accessible," she said.
It won't be enough for the owners of Ohh Chocolat Café to reopen its storefront at Sixth and George.
"At this point we're going to stay closed," said general manager Wendy Giannisis. "We'll relook at it in the spring because that's officially when more things will kind of be in place."
The venture was closed down at the end of October due to a lack of customers after Sixth and George was blocked off. The owners are continuing to operate a catering service out of the location.
Giannisis is optimistic the Park House condominium project will payoff for nearby businesses once completed.
"It'll really change this downtown area so for that part, really excited," she said. "But just with everything else that's going on, it was really hurting the café part."
With the closure, a handful of employees were laid off.
"The problem is that there was no contingency in place because we were never advised of what the extremities of the road closures would have been...I think they're a little bit more awake on letting us know and keeping us informed," Giannisis said.
To be made up of 153 units of one and two-bedroom housing in four separate buildings, developers behind Park House expect to see the first residents move in during the summer of 2020.
A stretch of Queensway Street at Patricia Boulevard also remains closed as workers install a new sewer line. The city hopes to have it reopened in mid-December.
