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Downtown Businesses Receive Grants for Facade Work

Downtown Businesses Receive Grants for Facade Work
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By Pam Spencer, Paducah Public Information Officer
Aug. 28, 2014 | PADUCAH, KY
By Pam Spencer, Paducah Public Information Officer Aug. 28, 2014 | 05:52 PM | PADUCAH, KY
Four downtown businesses are the recipients of grant funding through the Paducah Main Street Façade Grant Program. Paducah Main Street, a division of the Paducah Planning Department, developed the program to benefit local business owners in the historic downtown district.  

Paducah Main Street Manager Melinda Winchester says, “Paducah Main Street is dedicated to promoting and restoring Downtown as a thriving, walkable, and welcoming community for living and working. One of the ways we can make that happen is with the Façade Grant Program. Its purpose is to provide a financial incentive to Paducah Main Street merchants and property owners to improve their buildings while retaining the historic character of the district.”

At the August 21 meeting of the Paducah Main Street Design Committee, grant applications were reviewed with the following businesses receiving grants:

+ Cassitys’, 115 S. 2nd Street
+ The Chocolate Factory, 109 Market House Square
+ Creatures of Habit, 406 Broadway
+ McMurry & Livingston, 201 Broadway

The City of Paducah will match the investment a downtown business owner makes on the exterior of their property up to $1000.  The application process is simple. Paducah Main Street has a one-page application form that requires a cost estimate and photographs.  Improvements may qualify on a case-by-case basis; however, eligible improvements include:

+ Masonry or mortar joint repair
+ Window or door repair/replacement
+ Repair or purchase of new awnings
+ Transom and window repair/replacement
+ Removal of non-historic materials (siding that covers transom windows, bricked-over window or door openings, removing paint from brick, etc.)
+ Replacement of architectural details
+ Exterior painting (except for applying paint to unpainted brick)
+ Exterior lighting or interior storefront window display lighting that remains on during evening hours.

Funds still are available for this fiscal year. The next application review meeting will be September 18. Contact Melinda Winchester or Planning Director Steve Ervin at 270-444-8690 for more information about the application process.

Note: This Façade Grant Program is a new program. The former organization, Paducah Renaissance Alliance, offered a façade loan program which provided to business owners low-interest loans that could be partially forgiven for approved façade improvements. The loan program received very little interest.  This new grant program is a dollar-for-dollar match up to $1000.
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