WESTFIELD -The City of Westfield through the office of community development has announced a Restore Downtown Façade Improvement program for storefront businesses on portions of Elm Street, Main Street and Franklin Street. The program will provide technical and financial assistance to property owners and/or business tenants seeking to renovate their exterior lighting, signage or commercial facades.
Peter J. Miller, director of community development, said the city offered the program in 2013 when it was run by the Business Improvement District (BID). In that round, they painted the façade on Clemenza’s on Elm Street, and helped them to get a new sign for the restaurant. They also helped to repoint the brick on the building that houses Santiago’s Family Restaurant on Franklin Street.
“This time we will be running the program internally,” Miller said. He said they have set aside $80,000 of the city’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, with a maximum grant amount of $20,000 for the funding of well-designed improvements. Improvements may include exterior signage, lighting improvements, painting, new awnings, replacement windows, brick cleaning/pointing, more accessible entrance or other façade enhancements.
“Depending on proposals, we could fund between four to six projects,” Miller added.
He said the program requires a 65-35 match from owners or businesses. The city will put in the 65%, up to $20,000, and the match will be 35%. Miller said that businesses can put in more, but the minimum match is 35%.
An informational meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 11th, at 5:30 pm at Westfield City Hall, Room 315 to describe the program in detail and answer questions from the public. Miller said federal regulations require that applicants show the necessity of the project to retain current jobs, or add additional jobs to the downtown area.
“You can make the case that additional signage is needed to attract or retain customers. We’ll help them with that,” Miller said. The city will also have a design review committee, to ensure that improvements are appropriate for the downtown environment.
“The gas light project is finally coming to an end, which ends a lot of road and parking lot construction. This is an opportunity to help the businesses that have been down there fighting the battle to improve their own properties,” Miller said.
Program guidelines and applications are available on the City’s website at www.cityofwestfield.org, by calling the Office of Community Development at (413) 572-6246 or by emailing Peter Miller at [email protected].
Completed applications will be due back to the Office of Community Development by 4:00 pm on November 1, 2016. No late applications will be accepted.
