JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown Renaissance Corporation is announcing a new program to spur downtown development and revitalization. JRC Executive Director Peter Lombardi says the Downtown Renaissance Block Challenge was created to encourage property owners and merchants to work together to improve clusters of downtown buildings.
The program, which was announced in a media release on Tuesday, offers matching grants to groups of self-defined property owners and merchants who wish to improve their section of downtown. The improvements involve one of the following criteria: façade and signage improvements, upper floor renovations or building access, interior retail space enhancements, or streetscape improvements.
Lombardi says work is expected to improve the appearance, utilization and profitability of the buildings, adding that the new downtown program is modeled after the JRC’s original Renaissance Block Challenge – a neighborhood revitalization program that supports groups of at least five neighboring property owners with exterior improvements. That program, now in its third year, has assisted 90 property owners in 11 separate neighborhood clusters.
Preliminary applications for the Downtown Renaissance Block Challenge are now available and must be submitted by March 8. Anyone interested in learning more about the program or receiving application material should contact Jim Goodling at 664-2477, extension 223, or at jim@jamestownrenaissance.org.
We will have more with Lombardi on the program as well as other JRC initiatives during this week’s Community Matters program, airing at 6 p.m. Thursday on WRFA.
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