Interest wanes in grant program

A program used to revitalize the look of Pittsburg’s downtown is high on money, but low on interest.
Phase I of the façade grant program was so popular that in February 2007, Pittsburg City Commissioners approved a second allocation of $200,000, while adding an extra area of eligible businesses. That program started quickly, with about half of the money utilized by August 2008. But since then, the program has hit a serious halt — only spending about $20,000 of the second $100,000 over the past 11 months.
Even worse, commissioners haven’t had a façade grant application to approve since their Jan. 27 meeting, more than five months ago.
“It has dwindled some,” said Judy Westhoff, downtown development director. “I’m not sure exactly what it is. I haven’t had people tell me it’s because of the economy, so that’s a positive part. I have had some people who said they were waiting for the streetscape project to finish, and that was a month ago, so maybe that’s part of it.”
Westhoff said she didn’t feel that interest was dead, adding that 12 businesses currently had applications. But they haven’t filed them, causing commissioners to state that the program could use a renovation.
“I can’t address why there isn’t a larger desire to use façade grant money. There are plenty of façades that could use the improvements,” said Patrick O’Bryan, city commissioner and owner of Little’s, Inc., downtown. “I don’t know whether it’s a lack of building owners with the money to match the funds or just an inherent lack of interest in their property.
“I think it’s unfortunate,” O’Bryan said. “I see new buildings going up all over town that are used and needed, and yet, we have property owners downtown who don’t want to make the commitment to go ahead and invest money in their property so it can be desirable enough for people to want to inhabit it. To me, that seems to be the problem with a lot of the buildings downtown that are vacant. They just aren’t kept up to the place that people want them to be.”
Those problems didn’t surface with the first phase — the interest was high enough that commissioners actually approved façade grants that went about $4,000 over the $200,000 limit. That investment came back to the city, times three, for the first phase.
“People didn’t just do the matching amount … they put in a lot more than that,” Westhoff said. “I think it has been an excellent program. It gave building owners the opportunity to improve their building visually.”
Westhoff said commissioners have approved 68 façade grants over both phases, and added that most of the projects had been completed, helping to show a “significant” improvement downtown.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt it has made an impact,” said O’Bryan, who has utilized grants for his store. “It’s made a visual impact on the street. As a retailer and somebody … who deals with a lot of people, I hear a lot of feedback that our downtown looks much better than a lot of communities our size.
“Whether these people spend money in other locations, and I know that they are spending money in my store, I think that the appearance of health and financial health leads to the perception that Pittsburg has a healthy economy,” O’Bryan said. “It’s really kind of a self-perpetuating situation, and it works well with the other economic development we have going throughout the city.”