The typical facade improvement program just wouldn’t do in Rawlins, WY, where 62 of 95 downtown businesses, totaling 62,000 square feet of facades, are undergoing grant-funded improvements all at once. “We decided to try it a different way,” says Pam Thayer, executive director of Rawlins Downtown Development Authority (DDA)/Main Street. Participating property owners signed easement agreements giving DDA/Main Street control over their facades for eight years. They also contributed 10 percent of the construction costs. The remainder of the $1,630,000 budget came from two CDBG awards and one state grant.
Participant interest and private investment quickly increased that amount. “Since we started this, we’ve had Union Pacific come in and do their own $2.5 million project; another property owner did about $150,000 worth of work; now the museum is putting in another $500,000; and more amazing is that when all was said and done, I had property owners that said they wanted to do more [than the scope of the facade project] and that they would pay the difference.”
The total private investment has reached $3.25 million, Thayer says.
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