'Completely unexpected,' 9 Taunton businesses suddenly shut down because building could collapse
TAUNTON - It's a sizeable block of downtown Taunton that is now closed, impacting nine businesses that suddenly had to shut down last week.
"A full shutdown was completely unexpected," said Marilva Wedge, owner of Open Doors Yoga Studios. She's been forced to set up classes at a nearby gallery, and her retail business on Merchants Lane is shuttered for the foreseeable future.
"On a weekly basis, we can have about 250 mat rollouts, we've had about 60 this week but we'll get back to it," said Wedge.
The question is when for these business owners. A total of 38 residential units have been under construction in the top floors of the 150-year-old building since the spring. But last week the developer, Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (NOAH), said unforeseen structural issues were discovered.
"We saw some things, we didn't see everything, and what we saw collectively didn't start moving until last week, when it became dangerous," said Phil Giffee with NOAH. Cracks were expanding in some crucial brickwork for starters, not detected in a pre-construction inspection.
"We knew, obviously, with progress comes some occasional hiccups, we were hoping at the time it was just a day or two," said Colleen Simmons with the Downtown Taunton Business Improvement District. A complete shutdown of businesses was never part of the plan with a project that's part of revitalizing downtown.
Flower shop owner Greta Ferreira says neighboring businesses are also feeling the pinch with much of the block inaccessible. "Where they're trying to get people to cross before they get here, so that's a little bit detrimental," said Ferreira.
Taunton Mayor Shaunna O'Connell (R-Taunton) is hoping for some compensation for those impacted. "That's going to be a conversation that the businesses and the landlords have with the developers. We are there to support that, we've already initiated those conversations," said O'Connell.
For now the developer cannot provide a timeline as engineers are working on a plan to shore up the building so work can proceed.
"Everybody has business insurance and they have to be checking on that end, and we're going to be checking on our end," said Giffee.