City of Palestine revises grant program aiding downtown business owners
PALESTINE, Texas (KETK) — The Palestine Economic Development Corporation has revised their Downtown Grant Program that gives money to local business owners in the downtown area to repair structural damages.
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The program has been in place for years, but there has been a low turnout in applications. Now, they are changing the criteria and providing more money to help small businesses.
The grant was created to help property owners revitalize their piece of Palestine’s Historic Downtown.
Eligible improvements to the building include building stabilization, sign improvements, ADA improvements and mixed-use property improvements.
“It can go towards building stabilization, roof repairs and maintenance. Our most recent grant that we were able to award resulted in a new HVAC unit installed,” said Christophe Trahan.
The corporation will match up to 75% of the project cost opposed to the previous 50-50 ratio.
“It’s also a matching grant, previously it was a 50-50 match, now it is a 75-25 match. 75% on the PDEC side and 25% on the applicant side,” said Trahan.
The maximum grant amount increased from $25,000 to $75,000.
50% of the funds will be awarded when the agreement is signed and 50% when the project is completed.
An applicant is limited to only one grant per property each fiscal year.
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Grant applications are open year round, but once the increased $150,000 budget is gone, it will close until the next fiscal year.
The city hopes these new changes will attract more applicants.
“Continuing to support the improvements, the revitalization to those buildings for a very long time has been a focus,” said Trahan.
This is meant to help people like the Dickens, who are running their jewelry store out of a building that is a century old.
“We don’t have any heat, yeah we have no heat in this building, that would be good to get that updated. We would like to have the building repainted, refinished a nice fresh look,” said owners of Dickens’ Jewelry, Charles and Linda Dickens.
Another reason the city believes businesses should apply for the grant is the road renovation starting downtown.
“Its the perfect opportunity to layer your own project on top of that and once everything is complete and things are looking spick and span downtown they can be ready to go in an improved building and business,” said Trahan.
The Dickens’ don’t own their building but they will be calling their landlord to apply.
Linda Dickens said it’s a great resource to revitalize their historic downtown and get people walking down the sidewalks again.
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