Four years in, Greenwood’s effort to make its downtown more attractive is thriving, and 40 buildings have received or will receive facelifts.
The city started the Granting Revitalization and Opportunity for the Workplace, or GROW, initiative in 2016, with hopes of updating downtown facades at the Main Street and Madison Avenue corridor. The program provides matching grants of up to $50,000 to commercial businesses along the two streets for facade improvements including signage, art installation, landscaping, environmentally friendly infrastructure, lighting, decorative fencing and other exterior improvements.
GROW has proven to be a success. So far, 35 businesses have gotten facelifts, and in four years, more than $740,000 in grants have been awarded, said Kevin Steinmetz, Greenwood’s capital project manager.
The Greenwood Redevelopment Commission in 2016 committed $500,000 in TIF monies to facade grants. Another $500,000 was tacked on after an influx of businesses applied for the money.
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The average award amount for each business is about $30,000, so about $60,000 total is spent on most projects, Steinmetz said. There were a handful of $100,000 projects, where the maximum $50,000 was awarded including the Bailey and Wood Financial Group’s Greenwood office and Planetary Brewing, he said.
Many of the facade projects are simple, updating outdated 1980s-style vinyl siding to HardiePlank and adding new windows, Steinmetz said. But the grants can be used for a variety of improvements. Vino Villa added a Bocce ball court.
"Madison Avenue looks, in my mind, significantly improved from where it was before we got this grant," Steinmetz said. "Almost all of those are small businesses along there. It has really helped further that village-feel along Madison Avenue."
Reviving Main Street, however, has been a challenge, Steinmetz said. Many of the buildings on that street are mixed-use commercial and residential. Since the grant is for commercial use only, less has been done along that stretch.
"We have done some on Main Street, but it’s nowhere near like what we’ve done on Madison," Steinmetz said.
There are five more GROW projects in the works. The Greenwood Community Development Corporation reviews all the grant applications, including the most recent one asking for a $33,000 grant to make improvements to a building at 50 N. Main Street.
Steinmetz expects the program to continue going strong, with the possibility of changing the grant amounts or caps to best fit the city’s needs, he said.Â
"The idea in general, kind of taking areas that have already been converted and wanting to go to the next level … it’s worked really well," Steinmetz said.
Eligible businesses must be located in older buildings on Madison Avenue between Main Street and County Line Road, or on Main Street between U.S. 31 and Graham Road. Applications are available on the city’s website.
