The Downtown Facade Grant is a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funded through the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) that is awarded annually based on funding available. Mainly the funding comes from other state projects that did not use all the funding received from other grants.
To be eligible, communities, like Storm Lake, that applied for the grant had to demonstrate that the downtown area needed improvements to the outside facade of buildings. As best stated by IEDA, the projects intentions include "Transformative projects that have long-lasting benefits for the downtown and contribute toward a comprehensive downtown revitalization effort."
The grant specifically works with the exterior facades of buildings and does not go into the interior of the buildings. The grant is a $500,000 award to aid in revitalization costs for the participating buildings. Building owners are asked to contribute 30% of their building construction costs to the project.
Architects will sit down with building owners to determine the exact improvements that could be made within the building owners budget. From this discussion the Architects will create drawings for all the proposed improvements that will be submitted with an historical survey for the downtown facade project to the State Historical Preservation Office. Once all documents have been reviewed and approved, it will be time to put the construction documents out for bidders. The contractor will then be selected from the bids received and construction will be under way!
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