Downtown Algonquin looks to thrive with Western Bypass in place

ALGONQUIN – The truck traffic on Main Street is gone. Fewer vehicles passing through town are clogging the downtown area. When the Route 31 Western Bypass opened, it made it easier for people get around Algonquin's downtown.

With the bypass in place, Tara Storm, who along with co-owner Catherine Neuhalfen opened CaTara Skin Rejuvenation in March, hopes having less vehicle traffic will bring more people to downtown.

“We’re hoping the bypass will make it easier for people, we’re hoping it’s going to make more foot traffic,” Storm said. “On the weekends, you’ll see people walking in and out of these restaurants, and breakfast places.”

The Western Bypass was built to help divert through-traffic on Route 31 away from the downtown Algonquin area.

This allowed the village to put together a downtown plan on how it would like to see the area redeveloped. To help encourage redevelopment, the village also has established a downtown tax increment financing district, which can help pay for projects outlined in the plan.

At the skin rejuvenation spa, Storm and Neuhalfen modeled the business to be more of a destination, with two facial rooms and a small photography studio to take before and after pictures.

Next door, Neuhalfen, a lifelong Algonquin resident, recently opened a second business, Savour, where she partners with other Algonquin businesses to promote their products. She has candy from Morkes Chocolates, and flowers from Town and Country Flowers, among other things, along with pieces from local artists.

She decided to buy the former Woodhouse Day Spa when it closed to prevent it from becoming a vacant spot on Main Street.

“We thought, ‘What can we do to help with the revitalization?’” Neuhalfen said. “What can we do to help bring foot traffic downtown?”

She hopes the bypass will be helpful for businesses downtown.

“I know one of two things would happen, either downtown will become a ghost town, or downtown will thrive,” Neuhalfen said.

For the downtown to thrive, it will need interesting businesses, she said.

If more restaurants were open for lunch, it might help with foot traffic as well. She’s even hoping to stay open later into the evening to attract foot traffic from people out for dinner.

Neuhalfen also wonders how well she could have done if she had opened before the bypass was in place.

“Before it had been completed, we had cars sitting from 3 o’clock on, with nothing to do. People in both directions sitting in traffic, with nothing to do but look around,” Neuhalfen said. “In someway I wish I could have opened sooner, so I could have seen the result. ... But then again, how hard would have it been to get out of the traffic, and go into a building. Nobody really wants to do that after work anyway. That’s hard for us to [gauge] what the difference would have been.”

Cassandra Strings, a shop that does musical instrument repairs and restorations and offers lessons, has seen a drop in the number of walk-in customers, said Alex Swartz, a manager at the shop.

“We do have those people that come in and say, ‘I found my grandmother’s violin in my closet and want to see what it’s worth to repair,’” Swartz said. “That has dropped off.”

Swartz said having traffic back up led to people seeing Cassandra Strings.

“It was good to have the traffic that would basically park here waiting for the light, because people would stare through the window when they were driving home or to work, and they would see us,” Swartz said. “Now they’re going through bypass and completely missing us, or just flying through the lights and missing it.”

However, the walk-in revenue is a small part of the business.

“We were afraid of what it could do to our walk-in business, but thank god we weren’t banking on that type of business for us to be able to succeed,” Swartz said. “It did drop off, but it’s not going to affect us too much. We’re still strong”

Dr. Dave Niequist has had a chiropractic practice on Main Street for 37 years. The bypass reduced his commute between home and work to four minutes from 10 minutes.

His customers also have an easier time getting in and out of his practice.

“I think it’s a lot easier for our patients,” Niequist said. “[Route] 31 north was so heavy, just trying to get out of our clinic and back onto it was so hard.”