Adams Street businesses still struggling months after fire

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — It's been nearly 4 months since a massive fire on Adams Street destroyed one building and damaged several others. The road is still closed and businesses have had to move locations or get creative with alternatives.

The Wakery is located just around the corner from the Adams Street damage. As the only non-alcoholic bar in Springfield, they used to open their doors five days a week. Now it's only open to the public once a week.

"It is devastating to go from doing very well as a business and really feeling like you're getting it, to having to change your entire model," said Elizabeth Wake. "But also as a business owner, that is what you do. So you either close or you shift."

Wake said sales are down 67 percent, and the business is still trying to make up for the damages from the fire. While they were closed for 10 days, lost all of their inventory, and had to get extensive cleaning done to reopen, they only got $1,000 from insurance.

The Kidzeum of Health and Science didn't suffer any physical damage from the fire, but it's located right across the street from the main damage. They saw a 50% decrease in revenue in July and August.

"It's hard to be a business or a destination like a museum in our downtown," said Leah Wilson. "I'm not sure that everyone fully realizes that we have a lot of investment going out to the west side of town, but that has created almost an island effect, where people have what they need out there, and there are barriers, or at least perceived barriers, such as parking, that keep people from coming downtown."

Both Wake and Wilson said they understand how hard it is to work on old buildings, but they think the rebuilding process has taken so long that it's starting to make a major impact on business.

Christopher Nickell, the owner of 413/415 and 409/411 Adams Street buildings, updated city leadership recently and said they were working on the interior of the neighboring buildings to ensure they were secure before demolishing the center one. The city said because all of the buildings are connected, projects like this take extra time.