TAMPA, Fla. — For months, the owners of King State, a Tampa Heights coffee shop and bar, have been fighting to see traffic on their street again.
“Just seeing people drive on this road has been incredible, you know. It’s just an instant feeling of, like, we’re headed in the right way,” said Nate Young, co-founder of King State.
However, traffic wasn’t flowing in both directions on East Floribraska Avenue a few days ago.
That’s because the City of Tampa has been working on a road project to upgrade water infrastructure and improve safety along E Floribraska, which put King State in the middle of a construction zone.
When ABC Action News first visited King State last week, traffic to the coffee shop was blocked coming from the west on E Floribraska, with detour signs directing drivers away from the construction and, thus, away from King State.
The owners told ABC Action News that their shop had been difficult for customers to access for the past few months, causing them to take a hit in revenue.
That’s why they took their concerns to city council last week.
“It seems like whatever you guys did, and we did, really got to them before we actually got there,” said Tim McTague, co-founder of King State.
He spoke to city councilors during public comment.
“We just really spoke to the fact that we’re doing COVID numbers in Quarter 4 of 2023, and the only way we got through COVID was with assistance. And that’s what we need,” said McTague. "We need someone, whether it be the insurance company, or the city, or both, to really take a hard look at the numbers, know that we’re not lying, and just make that right so we can survive."
“They were receptive. Also basically said that they’re not in charge of that and they could just put pressure on the city and that it’s more of a mayor problem,” he added.
The owners said Mayor Jane Castor personally called them after last week’s city council meeting.
“In her words, she’s going to look into it and try to take care of it,” said McTague.
“To be able to talk and share where we’ve been for the last few months was nice. To even just have someone in that position listen to us and reassure us that they’re going to make it right and we’re going to work together,” said Young.
After the story first aired on ABC Action News, city officials were on-site to take a look at what was going on.
Crews have since removed the original detour signs that were in front of King State. Two-way traffic has also temporarily reopened.
“It’s been months since it’s felt anything like this,” said Young.
ABC Action News reached out to the City of Tampa for an update. The city sent this statement:
East Floribraska Avenue temporarily reopened to two-way traffic as of Saturday, January 13. Construction is still occurring in the area, however, and the City anticipates closing the intersection of East Floribraska Avenue and North Jefferson Street on Thursday, January 25 to continue work. That timeline may change.Although the recent installation of signage and the sharing of clearer detour information last week has appeared to help, we acknowledge that these actions were reactive due to insufficient proactive efforts. We are committed to doing better.Discussions are underway to enhance communication with businesses and residents affected by construction, even in the preliminary stage. While specifics are not available now, the City is taking residents’ complaints seriously and actively seeking comprehensive solutions to prevent future issues. Our dedication is to evolve into proactive partners with local businesses and residents through the process.
“It’s really just waiting on the city to come in and try to repair what we’ve lost,” said McTague.
While King State waits for a fix, they said the community support over the past week has been overwhelming as word has gotten out.
“We knew people cared, we knew people really enjoyed King State, but just seeing the level of how quickly it kind of spread was really, really encouraging and exciting. It’s definitely given us hope and excitement to keep pushing and keep trying,” said Young.
“We had a line almost to the door. People were parking on the street. Nothing was open, and they just showed up. It was really very emotional,” said McTague.
“I think we’d be naive to think that that’s just business as usual now. You know, that was a really good injection. It almost felt like a bit of a fundraiser, and everyone that could come out did come out. Hopefully, we get back to some sort of semblance of normal business and just even do our averages like we forecast, and we’d be happy,” he added.
While the parking lot has been full the past few days, they hope it continues in an organic way.
“The way we see it is, to have a great weekend like we did last weekend and see all of our guests and community come out to support us is amazing, but that onus to keep King State afloat can’t be that we have to beg or hope a bunch of people come out of pity or support to get us through, you know?" said McTague.
He continued, "This is going to be weekend after weekend after weekend after weekend until April. We’re happy everyone is coming, and we hope everyone comes back, but to put the obligation of our success on guests, or ourselves, or our staff or our vendors is not really fair. So you know, we’ll take all the support we can get. We love serving people, and we want this place packed as much as possible, but we want them to do it on their time."
Things aren't back to normal yet, but for the first time in a few months, things are looking up.
“We’re excited for the future, we’re hopeful," he added.
“Thanks again for everything. Y’all doing this was really huge for us, and so we’re really thankful that people care,” said Young.
