{"id":479209,"date":"2026-10-28T11:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T11:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/479209\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T11:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T11:10:09","slug":"san-antonio-businesses-fear-major-construction-will-crush-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/479209\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio businesses fear major construction will crush them"},"content":{"rendered":"

A busy intersection in a historic stretch of San Antonio is at a standstill as\u00a0<\/a>crews tear up and replace century-old pipes.<\/a> As vehicle traffic comes to a halt, foot traffic that kept local businesses alive has also stopped. In what is supposed to be the beginning of the busy season, tables are being left empty without warning, local businesses tell MySA.<\/p>\n

The fall and winter seasons are when Volare Restaurant<\/a> \u2013 a half-century San Antonio staple \u2013 is supposed to be its busiest. But reservations aren\u2019t coming in or showing up, and walk-ins have dwindled. Volare owner Eder Muniz says the slowdown is directly linked to the closure of the intersection of East Hilderbrand and McCullough avenues<\/a> \u2013 the intersection directly in front of his eatery inside the historic Olmos Pharmacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got here, and it was completely closed,\u201d Muniz told MySA about the construction. \u201cI didn\u2019t know anything. Not even my employees knew it. And the landlord, too. My landlord didn\u2019t know anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Antonio Water System (SAWS) is set to spend the next five months tearing up several thousand feet of aging water infrastructure. For the first two months, that work should span East Hildebrand between McCullough and Shook avenues. While this is a long-term project, it\u2019s having immediate impacts on businesses.<\/p>\n

Muniz says this should mark the start of Volare\u2019s busiest season. Instead, on what should be a busy Monday, he saw only six or seven reservations \u2013 most of which canceled or no-showed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s already affecting us,\u201d Muniz said. \u201cMonday is normally a busy night for us \u2026 and last night was like maybe five customers all day.\u201d<\/p>\n

In past instances when city crews shut down lanes for infrastructure upgrades, Muniz says he received ample warning. This allowed him to offset the expected drop in dine-in customers by pushing catering and online orders. This time, he says he was left in the dark until he arrived at Volare on Monday, October 26.<\/p>\n

Because business was just starting to pick up before construction began, he\u2019d hired new staffers to handle the influx of customers. Now that they\u2019ve disappeared, he\u2019s left in a financial bind, trying to survive the blow. And he\u2019s not alone.<\/p>\n

Just around the corner from Volare, Pashina Pastry has been serving Ukrainian cuisine <\/a>in the Olmos area<\/a> for just over three years. Now, the owner and her son say construction is hurting their business, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t even see people \u2013 it\u2019s almost no people coming \u2013 because of all the roads closed,\u201d Pashina Pastry owner Olena Romanko\u00a0told MySA via her son, who was translating. \u201cUsually there\u2019s lots of cars gathering, so in the bakery there\u2019s plenty of customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it may feel like a deterrent, side streets remain open, allowing customers to reach these businesses while bearing the burden of infrastructure needs and repairs. Drivers can use Howard Street or Shook Avenue to cross Hildebrand Avenue, as an alternative to McCullough, and use West Olmos Drive or East Mulberry Avenue as east-west alternatives to Hildebrand.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a grid of residential streets in between that can be used to access these places, though locals have been raising concerns about this since the early announcements of the construction.<\/p>\n

However, these two businesses are urging San Antonio residents to keep supporting them despite the traffic difficulties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need all the help from our neighbors to survive these four to six months. We need all their help,\u201d Muniz said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to stay open and try to do deliveries on our own and takeouts. We just need the customers. We need them more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A busy intersection in a historic stretch of San Antonio is at a standstill as\u00a0crews tear up and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[821,847,820,59494,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-479209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-mysabusiness","tag-mysanews","tag-mysastaff","tag-mysatranspo","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}