Fargo may draw from $80,000 set aside for an elevator project to boost the amount of money available for downtown building owners who want to spruce up their storefronts.
The Community Development Committee on Thursday recommended that nine building projects receive grants of up to $15,000 each.
Their grant applications total $122,300, more than the $75,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds set aside for the storefront rehab program this year.
But Fargo Senior Planner Dan Mahli said the city allocated $80,000 in 2006 for a project to fix the elevator at the U.S. Bank ramp in downtown Fargo.
That work has not yet materialized, and Mahli suggested drawing from the funds to supplement the storefront rehab program.
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The storefront projects recommended to the City Commission for approval involve:
E Four buildings from 117/119 Broadway to 109/111 Broadway. A request was withdrawn for a fifth project, at the adjacent Metro Drug building.
E Buildings at 216/218 Broadway and 214 Broadway. Part of the buildings formerly housed Hurley's Religious Goods.
E A smaller $2,300 project at 12 8th St. S. All the other requests are for $15,000, the maximum grant amount.
E Properties at 608 and 610 Main Ave.
Initially the owners of 14 projects applied for the storefront rehab grants, more applications than Mahli expected. Several later withdrew.
"I think it's a testament to what's going on in downtown," he told the Community Development Committee.
Many of the properties in the area set aside for storefront rehab grants are now improved.
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Linda Coates, the city commissioner who chairs the committee, said Fargo may want to end the program at some point.
"I think we're getting close to done," she said.
By Readers can reach Forum reporter Andrea Domaskin at (701) 241-5556
