The Cabinet Shop, located in the Trojan City Music Building on East Main Street in Troy, was one of three projects recently completed through the city’s Downtown Facade Grant Program. Two other projects were also completed at the Caroline on South Market Street and Haren’s Market on East Main Street.
Courtesy | City of Troy
Courtesy | City of Troy
Courtesy | City of Troy
By Matt Clevenger
TROY — The city of Troy has announced the completion of three projects funded through the Development Department’s “Revitalize Troy” Downtown Façade Program.
“The vision of “Revitalize Troy” is to maintain and sustain a vibrant, revitalized, visually-appealing downtown with historic structures that have been preserved and adapted to modern-day usage,” Troy Development Director Tim Davis said.
Administered by Troy Main Street and the Development Department, and funded by the city of Troy, the Downtown Façade Program is intended to encourage commercial property owners to complete projects to the exterior of downtown buildings.
Downtown businesses and non-residential building owners can apply for the reimbursement of matching funds of up to $20,000, or 50 percent of a project’s estimated costs, whichever is less, Davis said.
Funded by a portion of the city’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, the Downtown Façade Program contributed a total of $150,000 to 12 different projects, ranging from window and door replacements to brick work, painting, exterior lighting and outdoor seating areas. Projects are required to be completed by June of 2023.
“Several projects have already been completed,” Davis said. “Others are waiting on the weather to improve before starting.”
Projects at The Caroline, located at 5 S. Market St., Haren’s Market at 2 E. Main St. and the Trojan City Music Building at 106 E. Main St. have already been completed.
“The city provided approximately $36,000 to the three completed projects,” Davis said. “The investment of these three projects totaled approximately $113,000 in façade improvements.”
Troy Main Street assisted the city in administering the Downtown Façade Program, collecting applications and providing input on which projects were selected for funding.
“Troy Main Street has been instrumental in the program,” Davis said.
“We actually received applications requesting over $350,000 worth of façade grants,” Troy Main Street Executive Director Andrea Keller said. “We realized there’s definitely a big need for the program.”
“We weren’t able to award everybody an award,” Keller said, “but there is definitely a need for that downtown.”
The Downtown Façade Program was limited to commercial and mixed-use buildings located in the city’s Central Business District, Davis said, but the city also offers other similar programs for business and home owners.
“The city offers a small business development loan program that can be used to fund building repairs, as long as all objectives of the loan program are met,” he said. “We also offer a Residential Exterior Housing Repair Loan Program which provides funding to repair owner-occupied single-family homes in the city of Troy.”
