First Round of 500-600 Commercial Facade Grants Awarded

The City’s Economic Development Advisory Group (EDAG) recently approved nine grants totaling $22,275 to go toward building façade improvements in the 500-600 blocks of Commercial Street. Those grant awards through the City’s Façade Grant Program are expected to leverage just under $70,000 worth of façade improvements.

City Commissioners voted unanimously to create the Façade Grant Program earlier this year as a way to incentivize improvements to buildings that had been partially obscured by the concrete canopies in the 500-600 blocks of Commercial Street for nearly six decades.

Nearly $30,000 of funding still exists in the program and a second round of awards is expected to be announced in August of this year.