DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – After a little less than a year of construction, the Beach Street Streetscape project​ in Daytona Beach is wrapping up. 

On Tuesday, workers were busy putting the final touches on the $4.4 million project that started back in January. 

As part of the project, traffic has been taken from four lanes down to two, sidewalks were widened and more trees and lighting were added. ​

At Sweet Marlay’s Coffee, owner Tammy Kozinski is thrilled with what she sees outside her door. 

“Yay, I am glad it is done," Kozinski said. "It looks gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.”

Kozinski believes the project really improved the street and is likely to bring more customers her way.  

“It has slowed traffic way down, we’ve added parking spaces, we made the parking that we already had safer by angling it more and it’s beautiful,” Kozinski said. 

However down the street at Abraxa’s Books, owner James Sass felt differently about the project. 

 “I thought it was not helpful to local small businesses to narrow the streets to one lane and now that it is all done it was absolutely unnecessary​,” Sass said.

He claims his business is down 40 percent and believes street closures caused by the project added to an already tough year for local stores. 

“So we had traffic reduced to a trickle because of the construction and we had traffic reduced on top of it because of the shut downs and the pandemic and everything so the timing was just bad,” said Sass. 

This year has been a hard one for Beach Street, with several stores closing their doors for good. 

“That has been a bigger impact than the streetscape," Kozinski said.  “These are my neighbors, these are my friends and they are not coming back”

While Kozinnski believes the pandemic is to blames, Sass can't be so sure. 

"The unnecessary redevelopment and cosmetic projects don’t help,” Sass said. 

Despite their differing opinions on the nearly completed project— business owners on both sides are hoping the new year ushers in a new era for Beach Street.