The line at Juna’s Café extends far beyond the espresso machine. The barista fills cardboard cups for a group of people anxious for their caffeine fixes. A young girl pokes her head around her mother’s legs as she waves to a group of teenagers lining the wall near the door.

As a woman talks to the barista, nearly shouting over the warble of the espresso machine, she suddenly halts conversation and fixes her eyes on a sign plastered to the wall. It reads, “There are other Stars crowding the café stage and there is no more room for Juna … the final curtain will soon be drawn.”

Last Thursday was  the curtain call to Juna’s final performance on The Commons.  After seven years running, Juna’s is striking set, closing and moving on.

“It’s been tough listening to people tell me how sorry they are,” Juna’s co-owner Pam Gueldner, said. “Because I don’t want to be going.”

Juna’s Café is not the only store on The Ithaca Commons forced to close or relocate. A tour around The Commons reveals several empty storefronts of local retailers that once thrived but have closed as a result of a stagnant economy, competition and recent construction projects.

Ithaca Books, the used bookstore that inhabited the historic Colonial Building near Cayuga Street, recently closed. Fibers, a large storefront located near Center Ithaca and Ten Thousand Villages that sold clothing and accessories for women and children, is now a deserted retail remnant. The Smoothie Hut, Beads!, Mulberry Knoll and Night + Day have all relocated away from The Commons or closed within the past year. Employees at Beyond The Wall, a poster store, said they closed down Tuesday.

Gueldner said in the past decade, the increase in large, chain businesses around Ithaca and The Commons has drastically changed the retail environment and small, urban feel of the area. She said independent coffee shops such as Juna’s Café noticed a plummet in sales after Starbucks moved just outside The Commons.

Gueldner said when Starbucks opened in April 2006, she did not anticipate the competition would hurt her establishment, but Juna’s suffered an immediate 20 percent decline in sales.

“We thought it might eventually come back up,” Gueldner said. “[We hoped] people would go to Starbucks, see what it was like and then come back to Juna’s. But it didn’t happen.”

Gueldner said customers told her they generally went to Starbucks and other competing coffee shops only occasionally. However, this is what hurts small businesses such as Juna’s.

“We only have a certain number of coffee drinkers here and when they have more options … some people will take their business [elsewhere],” she said.

The Starbucks on Green Street deferred comment to the corporate office, which could not be reached for comment.

Gary Ferguson, executive director of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance, said the group usually plans for about a five percent turnover rate after the Christmas season. Ferguson said this year there were a few more vacancies than normal.

He said the construction of the Green Street Garage adjacent to The Commons and last year’s improvements to the Aurora Street Bridge have both inhibited the flow of

traffic. The Green Garage was scheduled to open last November, but construction was delayed.

“Those two projects in particular have really changed people’s traffic patterns, and I know … I try to avoid The Commons as much as possible,” Gueldner said.

Not only are people reluctant to go to The Commons, but the economy is also in a slump, Ferguson said.

“People just seem to have less money to spend and that’s evident at the national level and Main Street,” he said.

Carolyn Peterson, mayor of the City of Ithaca, said this ebb and flow of businesses has always occurred. She said she truly believes in the vitality of downtown Ithaca.

“It’s our historic downtown,” she said. “The Commons ... is a fun and vibrant space, and we will work very hard to make sure we fill those spaces.”

Peterson and the Downtown Ithaca BID have joined to form a 10-year plan that will allow the downtown community to adapt to commercial and residential changes. It aims to increase available housing, bolster tourism and move Ithaca’s business hub downtown.

The plan’s board of directors will consult with members of the community and students to get opinions concerning the future of The Commons this month.

“Essentially what we will go out and do is we ask people to paint us a picture.”

As the owners of Juna’s locked their door for the final time, they looked out across the dark Commons and sighed. For them, it’s hard to see that picture.

“It’s a heartbreak that we’re not going to be able to be a force downtown and to be a space for so many people across the community to come and enjoy,” Gueldner said.

As Tyler Gardella, a sophomore at Ithaca College and former Starbucks employee opened the door to Juna’s and noticed the posted letter stating the shop would be closing, he said he was baffled.

“I come in here once a week and it’s very busy,” he said. “This came as a shock to me.”

Gardella  said despite the popularity of the corporate coffee shop, he enjoys the flavor and atmosphere of local businesses.

“There are Starbucks everywhere,” he said. “You can’t go to a Maté Factor or a Juna’s anywhere. I like going to these places because they’re different.”