‘We’ve been forgotten about.’ West 8th businesses struggle after Sandman hotel explosion
Lisa Jackson opened her ice cream and coffee shop La’Creamian across the street from the Sandman Signature Hotel at 810 Houston St. just eight months ago. And until Jan. 8 — when an explosion rocked the downtown Fort Worth hotel, injuring 21 — business was going as smoothly as the Vanilla Velour in the freezer.
Since then, however, Jackson has been worried.
“I want to say, ‘What business?” It’s been almost nonexistent,” she said in an interview Thursday afternoon.
Orange and white barriers block access to West Eighth. And the sidewalk was closed off until as recently as Tuesday. Pedestrians in a hurry could easily fail to notice that they can reach La’Creamian at 215 W. Eighth St.
“There’s been a lot of conventions, and all the foot traffic that we would normally get from the convention center is not going to go all the way around and then go all the way back,” Jackson said. “We’re forgotten about, you know, like a casualty of war. I know we’re not involved in a big multi-million dollar lawsuit, so maybe that’s why we’re not on anyone’s radar.”
Next door at Cowtown Segway Tours, owner Tim Ballard said that business has dropped off completely.
“Nothing. The phone doesn’t ring,” he said in a phone interview.
While he does not see the closed-off street as an existential threat to his operation, Ballard lamented the temporary loss of foot traffic.
“As passersby go, I mean, it’s going to hurt a little bit,” he said.
Other nearby businesses that were affected, like the speakeasy bar and cigar lounge Thompson’s Bookstore on the corner of West Eighth and Houston Street, are more accessible than the row of struggling establishments on the west end of the block, he said.
“It does slow business down on our little corridor there a little bit,” Ballard said. “People have to find their way around.”
Next door to him, Angeliki Farquhar, owner of David Dalton Salon, had different complaints. While her business tends to come more from appointments than walk-ins, her elderly customers have had a hard time getting their hair done, since they cannot park on the street right outside.
“Who can we get to even pay attention to us?” she said in an interview Thursday afternoon.
One person who has not stopped paying attention is KayLee Pratt, marketing and special projects manager at the business advocacy nonprofit Downtown Fort Worth Inc.
She recently made signs promoting the Eighth street businesses and set them up in the area to inform people about them.
“We try and stay in communication with all of our downtown businesses as much as possible just to support and promote them,” she said in a phone interview.
“They do rely on foot traffic on that street, so we’re promoting on social [media] as much as we can,” she said.
The sign includes a QR code that takes curious passersby to a page on the Downtown Fort Worth website with information about the businesses on the street. She also posted a reel featuring La’Creamian on the DFWI Instagram account on Thursday.
She and others at Downtown Fort Worth Inc. were also instrumental in opening the sidewalk back up to pedestrians. They worked with the city council and a representative of natural gas distributor Atmos to get the barrier removed on Tuesday.
It’s still unclear which authority put the barrier up in the first place. Representatives for Atmos and the city did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
Farquhar and Jackson also complained of personnel from First Onsite, the restoration company that has set up a trailer office in the hotel parking lot and posted people at either end of West Eighth to keep an eye on the site.
One of these people told the Star-Telegram and others on Thursday not to access the sidewalk to look at the blast site or take photos, only to enter the businesses directly. The person, who did not identify himself, said that he was not allowed to take any actions other than telling people to move along.
Two other men who later identified themselves as First Onsite employees did not respond to questions. The company did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
A city spokesperson did not respond to emailed questions about the private company attempting to control public sidewalk access.
Despite the support of Downtown Fort Worth Inc., these business owners are worried about their futures on West Eighth.
The plumbing has flooded stylist Farquhar’s salon several times since the explosion, and without parking spots for her customers, she fears she may have to move from the location where she has cut hair for the last 15 years.
“If things don’t straighten up soon, we may have to find a new place to work,” she said.
This story was originally published January 26, 2024 at 10:29 AM.
