Bridge rehab on Twenty Mile Road hurts Parker coffee shop sales

Perfect Blend says the bridge rehab on Twenty Mile Road has hit the Parker coffee shop so hard that sales are down at least 30%, employee hours have been cut and owner Shelby Varra is no longer paying herself while she tries to keep the business afloat.

The shop, at 11010 Twenty Mile Rd. Unit A in the Watermark on Twenty Mile apartment complex, opened to the public on Friday, March 22, 2024. Varra said the business depends on quick in-and-out access from parents, commuters and neighborhood regulars who stop for coffee, cocktails and events, but the current bridge work has blocked the easy turn-in customers used to have.

The disruption began after construction cones went up on March 23, as the Town of Parker and contractor Jalisco International moved ahead on a three-phase rehabilitation of the Twenty Mile Road bridge over Sulphur Gulch. The current phase forces northbound traffic into the southbound lanes and has closed both of Perfect Blend’s primary entrances, leaving drivers to come through the neighborhood instead of turning in from the main road. The work is taking place just south of Mainstreet and north of the Target shopping center.

Varra said she received no warning before the closures and only learned how badly the access changes would affect the shop as customers started calling to ask how to reach it. She said some inventory is going bad because staff did not expect the traffic pattern to change so abruptly. A regular customer said the detour now makes it much harder to get in from Twenty Mile Road and requires a neighborhood route.

Town officials said they did not contact Perfect Blend before construction because they did not realize a business was located there, believing the coffee shop was simply an amenity for the apartment complex. Public records show the project is officially titled Twenty Mile Road Over Sulphur Gulch Bridge Rehabilitation, or CIP24-018, and town council records list a $116,866 professional services agreement with Alfred Benesch and Company. Bid documents describe the work as including 260 cubic yards of structural concrete removal and replacement, concrete flatwork, bridge railing stone veneer removal and reset, pedestrian rail removal and reset, SMA pavement, excavation and backfill, pavement markings, traffic control and erosion control.

The damage to Perfect Blend underscores how a transportation project can ripple through a small-business corridor when access planning and notice fall short. With the bridge work still reshaping traffic just south of Mainstreet, the pressure on shops along Twenty Mile Road is far from over.