‘We are just going to keep losing money,’ says Las Vegas business affected by F1 construction

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - Some local businesses in Las Vegas say they’re being negatively affected by the ongoing F1 construction work taking place ahead of the race in November.

“They added more crazy in an area that is already crazy,” said Kalani Badayos, the assistant manager at the Arco gas station located at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane.

It’s been challenging for his employees to get to work on time because of the traffic congestion in the area.

“Other days we are just so slow that we only sell 208 gallons of gas, our normal rate of gas sold is around 5,000 to 6,000 gallons a day. It just impacts all of us,” he said.

Badayos says store sales can sometimes be down by nearly 50% depending on the construction work going on that day.

“F1 is saying we are going to make this money back up, but how are we going to make it back up if within one day we lose thousands of dollars and they expect us to make it back within the period the race goes on?” he said.

Crews are building a temporary bridge on Flamingo Road over Koval Lane during the next couple of weeks. The intersection will experience rolling closures until at least Oct. 25.

“All they said was the roads are going to be closed off, some days we don’t even get a heads up that our parking lot is going to be shut off from all four entrances,” Badayos said.

He also says he’s been left in the dark about race week.

“I’m still trying to figure out how my workers are going to get to work that day, the start of the race and after the race, because we can’t close down,”

FOX5 has reached out to F1 for comment on the complaints but has not heard back.

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