Annapolis waterfront rebuild will ease flooding but not before businesses sink

An art galley plans to close. A restaurant’s revenue has fallen by half. An ice cream shop faces tens of thousands of lost sales, and a popular coffee café may be on the brink.

Businesses along Dock Street in Annapolis are feeling underwater due to a massive project that closed nearly all of their adjacent parking to rebuild City Dock and protect the area from rising sea levels and regular flooding.

The $90 million City Dock Resiliency & Revitalization Project along the downtown waterfront involves elevating what is now mostly a parking lot, developing a new park to help absorb water and installing higher bulkheads and flood barriers.

One restaurateur sued the city over the nuisance caused by construction, and two other groups — the preservation nonprofit Historic Annapolis and an anonymous plaintiff — sued previously.

The businesses say they’ve tried to get the city to provide financial support for construction-related losses or attract more patrons to the area with additional marketing. They didn’t expect the site to disturb all of Dock Street, obscuring many of their storefronts.

Protecting historic businesses from flooding is why Annapolis is investing tens of millions in remaking City Dock, city spokesperson Mitchelle Stephenson said. She added that the city has invested in banners on construction fencing, along with transit and social media ads, to promote the impacted businesses.

But businesses that rely on foot traffic say the construction is blocking them off.

Samantha Wilkerson supported the project until the parking disappeared.

When construction began in spring 2025, crews took away spots for cars to park, demolished the 49-year-old Harbormaster building, temporarily closed the closest public restrooms and put up fencing that hid her storefront, said Wilkerson, who took over the Annapolis Marine Art Gallery with her mother in 2022.

Visitors must find parking on nearby streets or go to the Hillman Garage on Gorman Street, a four-minute walk away.

Her revenue fell 20% in 2025. This year it’s dropped 70%, compared with previous years, she said.

Wilkerson said she no longer can pay rent.

“Small businesses can’t afford to lose so much foot traffic and parking,” she said.

Wilkerson plans to close the gallery, which has stood on Dock Street for about 48 years, and move the business online at the end of the year. Wilkerson said she reached out to the city for help finding financial support to mitigate the losses but was unsuccessful.

“It felt like we were being kicked out,” she said.

When former Mayor Gavin Buckley started planning for the project in 2019, the city gathered a group of nearly 100 business representatives and residents to help develop the plans. Buckley said he wanted to include businesses early, because he expected them to be most impacted by the construction.

Buckley, who is running for the Anne Arundel County Council seat representing District 6, said he wishes he had found a way for the city to put money aside for businesses impacted by the work. He attributed its absence to the city’s tight budget.

“I feel for the businesses,” he said, adding that he heard the community might lose Bitty & Beau’s, a café that hires staff members with intellectual disabilities.

Eric Smith, executive director of the Downtown Annapolis Partnership, said he’s concerned about national chains taking their place. In recent months, Atlas Restaurant Group, which has grown from its Baltimore origins to a national hospitality company, opened two eateries in Annapolis, bringing its area footprint to five concepts.

Eileen Fogarty, former director of the city’s planning and zoning department and the manager behind the project, described it as being at the forefront of national climate resiliency efforts. Annapolis is coping with sea level that’s risen 10 inches since 1950 and is rising about an inch every five years.

Once the construction wraps up next summer, visitation is expected to rebound, Fogarty said.

But multiple Dock Street businesses worry they won’t survive that long.

Harvey Blonder, who owns Latitude 38 restaurant, filed a federal lawsuit against the city in February. In filings, Blonder seeks to remove construction fencing that restricts the restaurant’s waterfront access and caused a 49% drop in its revenue.

With the construction, Dock Street no longer bustles with people, as it had for decades, said Sveinn Storm, the owner of Storm Bros. Ice Cream.

Storm said his shop’s sales fell $98,000 last year after the project began and by a similar amount through mid-July.

Fencing and dewatering tanks from the construction site are parked as far up Dock Street as his shop front. He said that is beyond what the city initially planned.

Stephenson said the city recognizes the project’s footprint has changed but the added water tanks became necessary to keep the site in compliance with state runoff standards.

The Maryland Department of Environment inspected the project site in June 2025 and found inadequate pollution prevention and sediment control measures. MDE levied a $2,505 fine against Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., which is handling the project. The site has since come into compliance, according to public records.

Storm said the front of his shop has experienced more frequent flooding due to runoff from the construction site that’s clogged a nearby storm drain during heavy rain.

Stephenson said MDE checked the drain’s filter Wednesday and found no issue.

The department discovered no violations by the construction crew, though the flooding may relate to issues with the drain’s pump system, agency spokesperson Jay Apperson said.

For Storm, “it feels like death by 1,000 cuts.”