Downtown Facade Grant program returns

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HURON — The Downtown Façade Program is returning to Huron in a big way in 2021.

While 2020 was a tough year for everyone, especially local businesses and with the help of some private donations, Greater Huron was able to announce the COVID-19 Recovery Fund to help local businesses, survive through the pandemic.

As businesses begin to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic, Greater Huron has decided to repurpose those funds from the recovery fund and announced the return of the Downtown Façade Grant Program.

“The Façade Grant Program has already sparked some visual changes in the downtown area and I believe that this program has momentum to make a real change for our downtown in particular, and our community as a whole,” said Ted Haeder CEO of Greater Huron.

The goal of the Facade Grant Program is to encourage the revitalization of building facades and to improve the aesthetics of the city’s central business district with grant assistance through Greater Huron Development Corporation, the City of Huron, and the Huron Community Foundation.

In addition to preserving the building facades, the intent of the program is to:
• Provide an incentive to return properties to a state of utility, through repair or alteration, which makes possible an efficient, contemporary use while preserving those portions which are significant to its historic architecture
• Maintain a quality image consistent with the character of the surrounding area
• Encourage the use of historic and architecturally significant commercial buildings in a manner that would continue to draw the public to the downtown
• Increase the investment in downtown and raise property values for tenants and owners

• Eliminate blighting influences and prevent deterioration of commercial properties in the Downtown Business District
• Conserve important existing building stock.

There will be two types of grants, the façade grant and the micro façade grant. The façade grant will reimburse approved applicants 50% up to $7,500, and the micro façade grant will reimburse approved applicants 100% of material costs up to $2,500. Downtown businesses can find the application online at www.greaterhuron.com or by coming into Greater Huron’s office to pick one up.