The city of St. Charles, IL, has put together a trio of incentives aimed at improving the downtown building stock while also encouraging new and expanding businesses to locate in ground floor spaces.
Because so many downtown buildings are historic, business owners who want to change building uses or expand often face issues around fire and safety codes, as well as out-dated heating, cooling, plumbing, and electrical systems.
“The goal is to encourage people to still want to relocate into these buildings,” says Matthew O’Rourke, the city’s economic development division manager. “We also want to improve and modernize the existing building stock so that it is adaptable for more businesses in the future. And we want to fill vacancies in our downtown, on the first floor, specifically. We really wanted to focus the impact on filling those vacant spaces that everyone sees when they drive through town.”
The Downtown Business Incentive Award is a matching grant for permanent structural, plumbing, electrical, mechanical, and safety upgrades, rather than cosmetic improvements.
Awards of up to $10,000 are approved by the Economic Development staff, with awards over that amount and up to $25,000 available with city council approval.
The full article appeared in our print edition. To always get the full story, read Downtown Idea Exchange.