The Pain on Main : Ventura: Merchants suffer while downtown streets are torn apart for a make-over that is expected to attract customers--eventually. But most of the disruption will be over by the Fourth of July.

Paul Willoughby has scratched out a living for 12 years selling old magazines, produce labels and hard-to-find knickknacks from his small downtown Ventura shop.

He survived the retail exodus to the Buenaventura Mall. He made do while oversize shopping centers sprouted throughout east Ventura. He stayed afloat during the worst recession since World War II.

But when city officials decided to spruce up downtown--widening sidewalks, planting new trees and repaving streets--his business plummeted.

“It’s down 50%,” Willoughby said last week, watching work crews patch up Main Street outside his Nostalgic Memories gift shop. “It’s been that way since they started it.”

Willoughby is among dozens of downtown merchants who are struggling through a months-long lull in business while construction workers dig up sidewalks, uproot trees and hack up their streets.

Officials hope the $3.6-million reconstruction effort will breathe new life into downtown and lure tourists from the Los Angeles Basin and beyond.

But for many of the merchants, the noisy renovation launched in February has amounted to a four-month headache--one that has dragged on much longer than they were led to expect.

Signs reading “Open During Construction” and “Parking in Rear” adorn the windows of virtually every shop along Main and California streets, the two thoroughfares at the center of the revitalization effort.

Customers, however, apparently are not getting the message.

“It’s been miserable,” said Diane Neveu, who owns a Main Street bookstore. “Sales are down probably 25%. We’ve got three blocks with no place for people to park, so it’s difficult for people to get here.”

In February, construction supervisor Rick Fierro of Oxnard’s Berry Engineering did not know any of the merchants in downtown Ventura. These days, everywhere he walks, business owners call him by name.

“The merchants have been super,” he said. “I thought it was going to be a nightmare. But as long as they’re kept informed, there hasn’t been any problem.”

Much of the work will be finished by Wednesday--just before the Independence Day street festival. All that will be left to do after July 4 is install new traffic signals and complete the sidewalk corners, Fierro said.

“The city is spending a little extra money to make sure it’s finished before the Fourth of July,” he said, referring to an investment in quick-drying cement that will solidify before the holiday weekend.

City planners recognize that the construction, which continues almost 18 hours a day, has disrupted many businesses. But by summer’s end, officials predict, the aging downtown will be more vibrant than it has been in years.

“People may be staying away because of the construction, but I would expect them to come back,” said Patrick Richardson, a senior planner who has supervised the upgrade.

Richardson said the wider sidewalks and new street lamps will allow business owners to capitalize on marketing opportunities that were previously unavailable: patio dining, sidewalk sales and evening shopping.

“The street improvements were not designed to boost business,” he said. “They were designed to provide better amenities to allow private investors to do what they do best: showcase their stores.

“Nobody thought that just putting in sidewalks would bring more people downtown.”

At Franky’s Place on Main Street, the owners have already opted to stay open later on weekend nights.

But the ongoing construction “has totally affected us,” said Sheri Haldane, whose family owns the mostly vegetarian restaurant. “We still have our regular customers, but it’s a real inconvenience.

“I’m trying to be positive, so I hope what they’re doing will bring more people downtown,” she said.

Along the sidewalk in front of Caffe Bella, a California Street bakery and coffeehouse, owner Beth Keenen has placed small dining tables next to the passing traffic.

“I’m really in favor of all the changes, but I’ve definitely lost customers,” she said. “Most of them say they’ll be back when it’s over.”

Still, Keenen is another merchant who plans to extend her hours when construction is completed. “We close at 5:30, but after it’s done, we’ll be open late at night and on weekends,” she said.

Some business owners complain that city officials misled them when they laid out the renovation timetable. Several merchants said they were never told about the repaving that closed traffic for weeks in front of their stores.

“We were told we’d be inconvenienced for two weeks,” said Frank Toms, who owns a furniture store along Main Street. “We were never told about the roads being torn up.”

Antiques dealer Paul Sevoyan, who owns two downtown shops and a Palma Drive warehouse, agreed with Toms.

“The biggest problem has been the lack of communication with the city and what it’s doing,” he said. “We’ve attended most of the meetings and tried to get the information, but they simply have ignored the issue.

“There’s no question that the renaissance downtown is going to be wonderful, but it could have been handled a lot better,” said Sevoyan, a downtown businessman for 23 years.

Richardson, the city planner, acknowledged that his office could have publicized the construction schedule more effectively to merchants.

“We have gotten complaints about it, but we thought we had made that clear,” he said. “But obviously, since people have been complaining, we didn’t do a good enough job.”

Word of Ventura’s downtown renaissance is leaking outside the county, say business leaders and tourism officials.

New brochures detailing the city’s antiques shops and history are being passed out at the visitors bureau, and new shops and restaurants continue to sprout in the historic commercial core.

Last weekend, Pineapple’s restaurant opened on the Ventura Beach promenade, and another restaurant is scheduled to open at the pier before the end of the year.

Furniture maker Larry Dolan plans to open a showroom in the 700 block of Main Street in August. He and his wife, Jeannine, have outgrown their Donlon Street shop and want a store in the thick of tourist traffic.

“Downtown is headed in a positive direction,” Dolan said. “They’ve cleaned it up a lot in the two years I’ve been here. There are nice shops, nice restaurants, and I wanted to get involved.”

Other merchants are willing to accept the short-term drop in business for the long-range benefit they hope will follow.

“It’s one of the things that has to be done, but it has been tough,” Ben Gaffney, who owns a specialty chocolate shop on Main Street, said of the construction.

“In Santa Monica, things didn’t look too good” when the Third Street Promenade opened, said Gaffney, who added that suffered losses of about 30%. “But now you can’t even find a place to walk. I’m hoping that happens here.”

Newly organized attractions like the Ventura Chamber Music Festival will, in coming years, further establish the city as a tourist destination, promoters say.

The music festival this year joined the California Beach Party, the Ventura County Fair, the Volleyball Classic and other events that pump millions into the local economy.

Refurbishing downtown will make a major difference in attracting other special events, said Virginia Mendoza O’Neil, who helped organize last month’s chamber music series.

“This is just the beginning,” she said. “It’s just setting the ambience. But once the ambience is here, there’s much more that’s going to be happening.”