What kind of impact could this grant make in the Downtown? Check out Woodbine

Many people like to visualize the impact the Downtown Facade Project could make for the Storm Lake Downtown but since that is difficult to imagine until official construction is completed or the construction documents are finished, we can show examples from other towns that have received the same grant and completed their project.  Below are two images from the City of Woodbine's Downtown with before and after shots for some of the buildings in their Downtown Facade project. 


 Woodbine, Iowa

What a change between the before and after!  The City of Storm Lake is excited and can't wait to see a positive impact in our Downtown!

Meet the Architects

With the Downtown Facade Project under way, the City of Storm Lake has some key players on our side making sure the project will be successful!  The Architects!  RDG Planning & Design out of Des Moines is helping with the design portion of the project.

After having two meetings with the architects, the building owners have started to become acquainted with them on the work for the project, but here is a little more information on them and their architectural background:

Scotney Fenton

Scotney has many years of experience when dealing with historic preservation and restoration.  In fact, he received his Bachelor's degree in Architecture in 1992 from Iowa State University and then went to get his Master's degree in Architecture from Ball State University with an emphasis in Historic Preservation!  He is also a member of the American Institute of Architects, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Preservation Iowa, and Historic Preservation Commission for the City of Des Moines. 

Scotney has been involved in many restoration and rehabilitation projects while he has been at RDG including: Iowa State Capitol, Iowa State University - Morrill Hall, Iowa Transportation Museum, St. Ambrose University - Ambrose Hall & LeClaire Hall, Terrace Hill Governor's Mansion, Woodbury County Courthouse, and many other projects.



Michelle Sacco

 

Michelle has years of experience with historic preservation and restoration as well.  She received her Bachelor's degree in Architecture with a Minor in American History in 2005 from Iowa State University.  In 2009,  Michelle received LEED Accredited Professional.  She is also a member of the American Institute of Architects - Associate Member and Iowa Chapter, Architecture in Schools Committee - Co-Chair, NCARB Intern Development Program, Salisbury House and Gardens - Properties and Collections Committee Member, and National Trust for Historic Preservation Member!

 

Michelle has been involved in many restoration and rehabilitation projects while she has been at RDG including: City of West Des Moines - Historic City Hall, Spaulding Center for Transportation, Clay County Courthouse Renovation, Des Moines Brewery, Iowa State Capitol, St. Ambrose University - Ambrose Hall & LeClaire Hall, and many other projects.

 

 

It is great to have them here in Storm Lake working on the Downtown Facade Project!

 

Downtown Facade Grant...What is it?

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!

Historical Review

During the January 6th City Council meeting, the City Council approved a contract with Jennifer Price with Price Preservation Research to conduct an historical survey for the downtown area.  This survey will include all the buildings on the 500 & 600 blocks of Lake Avenue along with the north side of the 100 blocks of east and west Railroad Street.

The purpose of this survey is to determine whether Storm Lake's Downtown is historic.  This could be through a district or just individual buildings within the downtown.  Most of the buildings within the downtown are more than 100 years old, but the age of the building doesn't necessarily make a building historic.  The Iowa State Historic Preservation Office and the National Historic Preservation Office base their findings on four different historical criteria:
1. Is the building associated with events that hold a significant contribution to history?
2. Is the building associated with lives of significant people?
3. Does the building embody characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction?
4. Does the building yield important information in history or prehistory?

Jennifer Price will start the historical survey in mid-January to conduct research on the downtown buildings.  Once Jennifer has completed her research, she can start preparing the Site Inventory Forms that will need to be submitted to the Iowa State Historic Preservation Office.  The reviewing by the State Historic Preservation Office is a requirement for the Downtown Facade Grant.

If any building owner within the Area of Potential Effect would still like to participate in the grant please contact Emily Haselhoff at 712-732-8002 or e-mail Haselhoff@stormlake.org!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Storm Lake Downtown Facade Blog!  This blog will keep the downtown business owners and citizens of Storm Lake up to date on the progress of this newest project in The City Beautiful. 

To bring everyone up to speed so far on what the City has done to get involved in this project here is a little recap.  About one year ago, City Staff was informed of the Downtown Facade Revitalization Grant and started assembling an application.  This included going around to downtown business owners to find buildings that would like to participate in the facade project.  The grant application was sent in back in January 2013 and the City was officially notified in August that the Storm Lake Downtown was one of thirteen projects that would be funded!

The City found two great groups to help provide the experience needed to get this great project for our downtown rolling!  The City is contracting with Simmering-Cory Inc. from Clear Lake, Iowa to help with the administration of this grant.  Simmering-Cory brings a lot of experience to this project from administrating projects for previously awarded communities including: Colfax, Conrad, and Red Oak. 

To help design the improvements for the front facades, RDG Planning & Design out of Des Moines was brought into the project.  RDG also has a lot of downtown facade revitalization experience working with this grant and others in communities like: Des Moines, Belle Plaine, Colfax, Conrad, Manning, and Grinnell.  Architects from RDG were in Storm Lake on November 6th to meet with building owners to discuss the some of the proposed changes to the different downtown buildings.

Keep checking this blog for more updates and information on the Storm Lake Downtown Facade Project!