City will offer to pay for business ‘clean-ups’

As the city of Bradenton continues to develop various incentives under its fledgling economic development department, director Carl Callahan and the Central Community Redevelopment Agency are initiating a new business enhancement program for the CCRA.

The city is setting aside $25,000 for CCRA businesses to apply for small grants to improve appearances.

The new program “is an opportunity for businesses in the CCRA to clean up their businesses for small amounts of money to help with the overall look of those businesses,” Callahan said.

The city is capping the grants at $2,500 per application and it comes with stipulations that the businesses must match 20 percent of their requested amount. The city also is offering an in-kind community service option if a business owner can establish a financial hardship case to cover the 20 percent match.

Callahan said there aren’t a lot of businesses in the CCRA district, which essentially runs between Ninth and 13th avenues east, from Sixth Street West to 27th Street East with a few extensions to the north and south.

The grant falls in line with similar programs in the Bradenton CRA, which offers up to $10,000 facade grants for new or existing businesses that want to improve their appearances. That grant is available through the Bradenton Downtown Development Authority. The city council, as the CCRA board, approved the new program on Wednesday.

“These are going to be such low grants that I don’t think every one needs to come back to the council for approval,” Callahan said. “This is something we want to put out there and see if there are any takers. If it’s successful, we can look at adding more money into the program.”

Ward 5 Councilman Harold Byrd Jr. said he would like to see a similar program developed to help residents clean up their homes.

The city does offer those types of grants through state and federal programs like SHIP funding and CDBG grants, but funding for those programs have lessened dramatically over the years and the city is looking to pick up the slack.

This story was originally published May 11, 2017 at 2:12 PM with the headline "City will offer to pay for business ‘clean-ups’."