The reopening of a busy downtown Kitchener intersection is cold comfort for the owner of one neighbouring business.

Rolf Glemser owns Far Out Flicks on Queen Street South near Charles Street.

The intersection of Queen and Charles closed for Ion construction in the spring of 2015, and reopened to traffic last week.

In that time, Glemser says, his sales volume was cut in half.

“We’re being told ‘Stick it out, it’ll be nice when it’s done.’ That’s what, 2018? It’ll be nice then?” he said in an interview.

“The longer it stays closed, the more people stay away.”

Glemser says he was initially told the intersection would reopen last November, only to see it instead pushed into the spring, and then the summer.

Even with Charles open at Queen, its current closure at Victoria Street and impending closure at Benton Street have him concerned business will continue to fall – especially with other downtown streets also closed.

“East, west and north of me, I’ve got almost no traffic flow,” he said.

“Every single store owner here, all the way down Charles Street … not one of them’s going to have a good thing to say.”

Glemser says the only things keeping his video store afloat are online sales and a few regular customers. He’s opening for fewer hours than he was before construction began, and may reduce his hours further.

Across the street at the Northern Thai restaurant, owner Seng Soukham says he’s heard from a lot of business owners seeing experiences similar to Glemser’s.

He’s an aberration though – something he chalks up to his loyal customers.

“It doesn’t matter (if it’s) construction or no – they still come,” he said.

“For me, it’s OK.”

Soukham says he still wants to see construction wrap up, to lessen the impact on other business owners in the area.

According to Lauren McGirr, a spokesperson for GrandLinq – the consortium handling LRT construction – more drivers will be able to start using Charles before the summer is out.

She says Charles should reopen to southbound traffic between Francis Street and Borden Avenue by late July, with northbound traffic resuming between Francis and Benton Street by mid-August.

Work on Charles had been delayed several months because of unexpected discoveries made when the street was dug up for utility work.

“We don’t always know what we’re going to find underground,” she said.

Construction of the Ion light rail transit system is expected to finish in late 2017, with vehicles running by early 2018.

With reporting by Leena Latafat