Old Town Arts & Design Distric Improves Building with Grants
Indy Star/Carmel
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A Carmel Redevelopment Commission program awarded $32,500 in grants to help owners in the Old Town Arts & Design District improve their building's facades last year -- including the owners of one property who received a total of three grants.
According to grant guidelines given to applicants, individual grants are capped at $5,000 for each project and are given to property or business owners in the Old Town area to help cover the cost of building renovations.
Owners apply for the grants, and they are reviewed and awarded by Les Olds, the city's director of redevelopment.
John Levinsohn and Bob Merrill, who jointly own the three-parcel old Pizza King building on Main Street under the name Bobby John LLC, received three $5,000 grants to make improvements to the building's facade. The renovations totaled $20,194.
The commission awarded Levinsohn, Merrill and Bobby John LLC each a grant in December. Their names were listed on three separate applications under one of the three parcels, which have separate addresses, 9 through 15 W. Main St.
Bistro de Paris now occupies two parcels and Frazier Pettee Fine Art occupies the third. Olds said because the location has three parcels, it could have been occupied by three separate businesses and could be considered three different buildings."(The grant money) was always intended to be on a building-by-building basis," he said. "It's based on buildings more than anything." The bills for Levinsohn and Merrill's renovations, covered costs such as tearing down and restoring a facade, demolishing windows and for stucco. Invoices tallied the project as a whole and expenses were not broken down by parcel. Levinsohn said the restoration "made a huge difference" in the look of the building. "You've got an old downtown area that had nothing going on," Levinsohn said. "(The grants) are an incentive to get people to invest. It looks like it's starting to pay dividends."
This week, the Redevelopment Commission appropriated $30,000 to the grant program for 2008. The commission's total 2007 budget was $15.34 million.The commission's money comes from tax increment financing, a tool that diverts additional property tax revenues generated from new development in areas such as Old Town toward public improvements.The group also gets money from land it buys and sells for development or redevelopment.
This year's commission budget was approved Tuesday for about $13.06 million. Along with the grants, that sum includes costs such as land purchases, construction, operational expenses and professional fees. Olds said this year's budget fell below last year's because there aren't as many new construction projects at this point. He said the commission is conserving its funds for future projects, mostly in the area south of Old Town and north of City Center, Carmel's new downtown. Those could include improvements such as tearing down old buildings and adding roads.
2008 Budget
Posted on Friday, February 22, 2008 at 12:58PM
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Beverly Fast Sinclair
in Local News and Opinions
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Beverly Fast Sinclair
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