If you build it, will they come?

The chaos of construction on the Green Line (formerly known as the Central Corridor Light Rail) created real challenges for businesses along the route. But, of course, part of the reason for building the line in the first place was to encourage entrepreneurship from one end of it to the other; so a plethora of programs were set up to stabilize struggling businesses and encourage new ones to locate on the line. The most visible of these is the marketing initiative dubbed On the Green Line that highlights ethnic and other businesses along University, in downtown Saint Paul, and in Minneapolis' West Bank and Stadium Village neighborhoods. But a host of less colorful support programs, from forgivable loan offers to access to business consultants, have also played a role. (An overview of programs is available here.)
 
According to the latest figures from the Metropolitan Council, of the1,400 retail and nonretail businesses on corridor, 79 have closed since March 2011 and 26 have moved off-corridor, while 108 new businesses have opened during that time, and 24 have moved to a different location along the corridor. The result: 105 gone, 108 added—a very modest gain, and a pretty clear indication that the Corridor is not bleeding--and a signal that it's in the first stages of becoming an enterprise magnet.
 
This year The Line looked at some of the small-business activity along University Avenue, finding entrepreneurs who made it through the construction period in reasonably healthy shape, and others who located along the line precisely because they're anticipating a positive impact on their businesses when the trains start running in 2014.