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Fayette Main St. awards first downtown facade grant

Justin Addison, Editor/Publisher
Posted 7/8/21

Fayette Main Street, Inc., last week awarded the owners of a downtown building the first grant of its facade improvement program. Mary and Jerry Reichel received a check for $2,000 on Thursday to …

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Fayette Main St. awards first downtown facade grant

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Fayette Main Street, Inc., last week awarded the owners of a downtown building the first grant of its facade improvement program. Mary and Jerry Reichel received a check for $2,000 on Thursday to help pay for new windows installed in their building at the corner of Church and Davis Streets downtown.

The organization announced the program in February. The goal of the program is to encourage historically appropriate facade improvements to existing buildings downtown in a manner that promotes the success of the businesses while preserving the unique historic characteristics of those buildings.

Interested property or business owners may apply to receive up to $2,000, or 50% of the project cost. The minimum grant amount that will be considered is $500. All applicants must provide a dollar-for-dollar matching amount to their grant requests. 

The Reichels installed the new windows on the second story of the building. The building houses Peak Sport and Spine and Edward Jones on the ground floor, with apartments upstairs. The windows were installed during the spring.

Program guidelines allow for one grant to be awarded per property, per year. All grants are awarded on a first-come, first-served, competitive basis. Work must be done in line with current Fayette Historic Design Guidelines. The applicant may be either the property owner or the tenant of a building that is located within the Courthouse Square Historic District (Fayette Main Street District) boundary.

The work paid for by the grant funds or applicant’s matching funds can take place on either the front or rear facade of the building or on an exterior side facade open to a common space or public right-of-way and must be visible to the public. Types of work that may be funded include masonry repair, tuckpointing, signage, painting, awnings, cornice repair, and window and door repairs.

Ineligible properties include those with special assessments; real estate taxes or personal property taxes that are delinquent; buildings with outstanding code violation orders, unless these are corrected as part of the project; buildings in litigation, mediation, condemnation, or receivership; properties that are exclusively residential; and tax-exempt properties.

The grant committee will consist of one representative from the Historic Preservation Commission, one representative from Fayette Main Street, Inc., and one City of Fayette staff person. Projects using labor and materials and first-time applicants will score higher among the judging criteria. Also, projects which produce the most visible facade changes will be favored.

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