Despite the challenges of road construction, some businesses use it to their advantage.

Take the eight small businesses that have moved onto Johnson Drive in Mission since major road construction started there.

No one is more pleased about that than Emily Randel, public information officer for the City of Mission.

“People ask me, ‘How many businesses have closed since you started (construction)?” Randel said. “And we say, ‘We’ve had people moving in,’ so it’s been really cool to see. And it meets my expectation for the district and what I anticipated.”

Choosing to move into a construction zone can even be a money-saver for a business, said Stephanie Landis, a consultant with the Kansas Small Business Development Center at Johnson County Community College.

Landis has had clients looking at spots on Johnson Drive, and they were banking on the redevelopment to benefit their revenue in the long run.

“One person was able to get some major concessions in the build-out,” Landis said, “because they couldn’t actually get into the spot until later than they wanted.”