GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Curt Towne looked surprised when the door opened at his Guitar Station in the middle of the afternoon. He had become used to solitude inside his store while workers pushed dirt, stacked old bricks and poured new concrete sidewalks outside his front windows.

The Walnut Street Improvement project was designed in two phases to improve the U.S. 17 Corridor. The first involved closing Walnut from U.S. Highway 17 to Palmetto Avenue from February until the end of July. But for merchants along Walnut, that essentially meant shutting off walk-in traffic for six months.

Now that Walnut has re-opened west of U.S. 17, the merchants face a new challenge – letting their customers know their doors have been, and are still, open.

“That’s the hardest thing,” said Cowabunga Comics and Art Gallery owner Beth Baxter. “You have to let people know. The fact is, we never closed. The business has been open the entire time. Most people thought we were closed because walking through the front door was hard. Now they can walk in. They’re saying they’re so happy we’re open again.”

After her in-store sales came to a crawl, Baxter said she relied on online sales to stay in business.

“It was very frustrating,” she said.

Towne said his sales suffered, too. His primary source of funding came from repairing guitars.

“We have a back door, so the people who knew that at least could get in,” he said. “But it’s been really slow. I’m so glad to see a car out front again instead of a bulldozer. It’s been a long time.”

Towne hopes the city will allow the merchants along Walnut Street to conduct a few street fests to make up for a half-year of lost sales.

Red’s Wine Bar started slowly but rebounded as regular customers found ways to return to their routines.

“They made their way in here,” said bar manager Bre Harris. “It was a little rocky at first, but we did pretty well because we’re only open at night. We had trivia BINGO and other events they were happy to see.

“I was very happy not to have to answer so many questions about when (the street) will re-open). I’m grateful it’s done.”

The city planned to celebrate a soft reopening on Aug. 2 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony to welcome residents and customers back to downtown shops. However, a thunderstorm postponed the event.

Phase 2 of the project is underway on the eastern side of U.S. 17 to the St. Johns River. The combined costs for roadway, utilities, pedestrian and streetscape improvements are $2.7 million, and the gas tax, surtax and the American Rescue Plan Act funds partially paid them.