Eddie Young Jr. used to pull in as much as $700 a day washing cars at his shop on Northwest 22nd Avenue. These days, he is lucky to see $130. The culprit, he and a growing coalition of Miami activists say, is a sprawling Miami-Dade County sewer project that has torn up the corridor outside his business for years with no firm end in sight.
A Car Wash Squeezed By Construction
Famous Car Wash, which has operated along the corridor since 2016, according to seed facts underlying reporting from WLRN. Eddie Young Jr., who helps operate the business, told the Miami Times that daily sales that once ran between $400 and $700 have collapsed to roughly $75 to $130, a decline he attributes to construction access problems along the avenue. Young said he has had to slash his workforce accordingly. “I had a staff of probably like 10 guys. I only got like four guys,” he said, as reported by miamitimesonline.com.
He is not alone. Nathaniel Marks of KC Food Market, also located along the corridor, said the slowdown has dragged on for months. “This street right here has slowed us down for about six, seven months now,” he said, per the same account.
What's Actually Being Built
The work tearing up Northwest 22nd Avenue is part of a $126 million Miami-Dade septic-to-sewer initiative meant to connect more than 1,000 businesses countywide to the county sewer network, the outlet reports. The stretch running past Young's car wash spans Northwest 22nd Avenue between Northwest 79th Street and Northwest 90th Street, and includes installation of sewer pipes and service connections along with water-line and fire-hydrant upgrades. Once finished, about 104 commercial properties along this section are expected to be able to connect to the county wastewater system. Lanzo Construction is performing the work, and the corridor is one of five included in the broader septic-to-sewer initiative.
The project's timeline and price tag have both moved substantially since it began. It was originally scheduled for completion in June 2024 with a budget of $7.25 million, but it ran into unforeseen underground conditions and utility conflicts. Miami-Dade County has since approved a 1,000-day extension along with an additional $5.41 million in funding, pushing the project's revised total cost to roughly $12.66 million. Reported completion dates for the work vary: the Miami Times has reported that Phase 2, the sewer-installation portion, was expected to wrap up in January 2027, while WLRN has cited an estimated overall completion date of March 17, 2027.
Activists Demand Accountability
The Black Collective, a Miami-based advocacy group, has made the corridor's struggling merchants the centerpiece of its Save Our Black Businesses campaign. The group planned to call attention to the issue with a Thursday rally and demonstration at Famous Car Wash, located at 8255 NW 22nd Ave., per WLRN. Through the campaign, the Black Collective is demanding immediate financial relief, restored customer access, and institutional accountability for merchants it says have been battered by the construction delays.
The group has also called on county leaders to establish a commission to conduct an independent economic loss analysis within 30 days, and it wants compensation for affected businesses tied directly to their revenue declines. Advocates told WLRN that protecting Black-owned businesses must be a priority, and that relief cannot wait while these businesses continue to struggle to survive.
Grants Offered, But Advocates Say It's Not Enough
Famous Car Wash did receive a $20,000 grant from the Northwest 79th Street Corridor Community Redevelopment Agency through its Business Interruption Relief Grant Program, according to WLRN. The CRA has said it is expanding that small-business grant program to provide additional financial relief to businesses hit by the construction, as reported by the Miami Times. Miami-Dade Commissioner Marleine Bastien has said her office is working with the CRA and the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department to identify solutions for affected merchants.
Still, advocates and business owners say the short-term grants fall far short of offsetting the scale of the revenue losses businesses like Young's have reported. The Water and Sewer Department has said its outreach to the business community began back in 2023, before construction started, and included door-to-door notifications, community meetings, project updates and direct engagement with property owners.
A Broader Florida Pattern
Miami-Dade's corridor is not the only place in the state where long-running infrastructure work has run headlong into small-business survival. A proposed state measure, Senate Bill 324, would create a loan program through the Florida Department of Commerce offering low-interest loans of up to $100,000 to small businesses directly affected by long-term construction projects that block customer access, according to constructionowners.com. Under the proposal, applicants would need to document a revenue decrease with year-over-year financial comparisons and submit photo or video proof that construction interfered with access to their storefronts.
That legislation was prompted in part by the closure of an Orlando restaurant, the Hammered Lamb, after an 18-month delay tied to a sewage infrastructure project, the outlet reported. A separate $65 million stormwater improvement project in South Tampa similarly drew backlash from business owners who feared planned roadway closures would damage local commerce. For merchants along Northwest 22nd Avenue, those statewide debates may offer little immediate comfort as they wait for a sewer line, and a resolution, that keeps shifting further down the calendar.
