SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- It was a packed house inside of Ryan Bros Coffee in City Heights on Sunday, with customers enjoying their coffee and sweet treats.
Maxine Zepeda and her husband have owned the shop for just over five years, opening in November 2019.
The five years have been a whirlwind; first, the Zepedas dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, the City of San Diego’s construction project started.
"It's nice to see it like this," Maxine Zepeda said. "I was really stressed out, but we survived COVID, so I was gonna survive the construction too".
When you step outside the shop now, you see cars driving through roundabouts, passing by the orange barriers, barrels and cones on the side of the road.
For more than two years, however, you saw those in the middle of the road; blocking them was a metal fence with a "road closed" sign. Eight blocks of University Avenue was closed for the city’s major reconstruction project.
The reconstruction is a part of the city's Vision Zero initiative, which aims to create safer roads to achieve zero pedestrian deaths. However, the construction blocked off access to many businesses on University Avenue, including Ryan Bros.
"We were really busy in the morning, and we lost almost all our customers," Zepeda said. "Our revenue was pretty bad. It was less than 30%.”
Other businesses ABC 10News spoke to in the area felt similar hits to their revenue, like Dan's Smog Check Station.
In an interview with ABC 10News in August 2024, shop owner Mazda Mehraz reacted to the city’s announcement of a delay in the project.
"The first year, I lost huge business," Mehraz said at the time. "Now, this year, is going to be double".
At that point, the city said the project was 60% complete. Five months later, in January, construction was still happening.
Amid the ongoing construction, the Rosa's Ice Cream shop went viral after a social media personality gifted the owners $1,000. The owner in that video said they thought they would be closing soon. The owners told ABC 10News the construction caused them to lose 95% of their sales.
"It's a mess," said Rosa's Ice Cream owner Francisco Gonzalez. "We're broke. We can't afford rent".
In January, the city told ABC 10News the project would take nine more weeks to complete. Almost nine weeks later, University Avenue reopened.
"It's like little by little going back to normal," Zepeda said. "It's going to be looking good. It's a nice feeling."
Zepeda calls this a new beginning for Ryan Bros. She credited her customers who kept coming through the construction as the reason the business will start this new journey.
"We're always grateful that people still come in here and that they take the time," Zepeda said. "They're great customers; we're lucky we were lucky".
The City of San Diego said the full reconstruction project is still not complete.
Contractors will be working on resurfacing and restriping the pavement, but no major road or sidewalk closures are expected.
The project is expected to be completed this spring.
