Year three of the town's Façade & Storefront Improvement Program is coming to a close and a total of a dozen businesses – mostly in the downtown core – have taken advantage of thousands of dollars of grant money to beautify building exteriors.
Town officials are hailing this popularity as a big success and will once again recommend to council that more funding be included in the 2015 town budget for the program's continuation and growth.
“Collectively, I would say we are quite pleased with what we have seen to date in the program, and it is starting to spruce up our built environment in the downtown area,” said Craig Teal, the town's director of planning and operational services. “We know there is a lot more people out there that have looked at the program, thought about it but have not yet brought forward their applications.”
Joy McIlwain, owner of Joy's School of Dance on 53 Street, was one of four applicants in 2014 that received the program's maximum grant of $5,000. The dance teacher said she didn't have enough funds to beautify the exterior of her building after buying it in 2007 but was ready this year to take advantage of grant funding to finally put on the necessary final touches.
“We just did a little bit of rock work on the front and we changed the walkway in the front from wood to cement and I am waiting for some awnings to be put in now,” said McIlwain, who started exterior work in August and expects to finish by the end of November.
When the program was introduced three years ago the intent was to encourage business people to start sprucing up their properties, and make them look more appealing from the curbside than they appeared in the past, said Teal.
He said the grant money can be put into new doors, windows, adding accents, canopies, and creating height to structures' appearance that will help close in gaps between one-storey buildings. “Those elements, when you are on the sidewalk and on the street and you're looking at it and can see it, that is what we are trying to encourage both their investment and our investment,” said Teal, adding the grants for these types of exterior improvements are limited to existing commercial structures, and not new buildings.
“All of our money has to go into what is publicly visible, so it has to be the exterior. It has to be visible from a street front, otherwise it would be considered a non-eligible item. If you were just redoing the roof that would not be an eligible grant item.”
Teal said the town set up six “slots” in the first year for a total funding of $30,000. Business owners then successfully took all six. In year two, there were four slots up for grabs but only two grants were issued. For 2014, there were four available and all applicants were successful.
The town provides a maximum of $5,000 per applicant, with businesses required to match each grant dollar with their own money.
“In most cases they have been going over that mark and putting in more money than the grant amount,” said Teal, who noted the program is available to businesses across the town, not just in the downtown core.
“It takes a while for word to get out and in some cases people are still putting together their projects,” he said. “Certainly the 12 projects we have funded to date are a good start but we could easily see another 12 over the next few years.”
Meanwhile, downtown businesses are currently the “vast majority” taking advantage of the program.
Brenda Layden, owner of Innisfail Travel, said the municipal initiative was a “real encouragement” for her Main Street business to do improvements, which included a new rock finish on the exterior walls.
”We are proud of our Main Street, and we have a nice-looking building,” said Layden.
For more information on the town's façade program call the town office at 403-227-3376 or visit the town's website at www.innisfail.ca for an application form.
