Metro communities spend money on downtown facade enhancements, with massive influence

Jan. 23, 2023

This paid piece is sponsored by Sioux Metro Growth Alliance.

He went in to apply his swing at a golf simulator and ended up changing into a restaurant proprietor.

“It simply type of occurred,” mentioned Carson Stemper, proprietor of The Office Bar & Grill in Madison.

“I used to be in there {golfing}, and I talked to the proprietor, and he mentioned he was promoting, and one factor led to a different.”

Stemper put his culinary schooling to work at The Office Bar & Grill, which opened in 2019 at 201 S. Egan Ave., a downtown road stuffed with native companies.

“Obviously, COVID was powerful, however our essential factor is pizza, and that’s an important to-go merchandise, so we acquired by COVID rather well, and now every thing’s nice,” he mentioned.

But fixing up his century-old constructing and turning it from a bar with golf simulators right into a full-service restaurant took a chunk out of his funds. That’s the place a facade easement grant from the Lake Area Improvement Corporation, which awarded it as a part of its Downtown Facade Improvement Grant program, helped.

It allowed him in 2021 to rework the constructing’s outdated fashion into one thing that regarded extra fashionable.

“It actually made the constructing look good and welcoming,” Stemper mentioned. “We’d needed to do it, however then they got here out with this system. Our grant didn’t cowl the entire price, however it made the choice to spend the cash a lot simpler.”

Here’s a take a look at the earlier than and after:

And prospects took discover.

“People liked it,” Stemper mentioned. “We had an entire bunch of individuals are available as a result of they mentioned they noticed it from the road and it regarded so good, so we acquired an entire new batch of consumers simply because the surface had an interesting look.”

This yr, communities within the Sioux Falls metro space are launching comparable applications.

The Dell Rapids Economic Development Corporation and Lennox Area Development Corporation are each providing as much as $5,000 in matching funds for Main Street companies and constructing homeowners to make enhancements to awnings, signage, home windows, doorways and different parts of their facades.

While the Dell Rapids Economic Development Corporation has targeted totally on industrial progress within the Fiegen Development Park, board president Dan Klein mentioned: “We acknowledge how vital our historic downtown hall is to Dell Rapids.

Our downtown units us aside from our neighboring communities.” Downtown Dell Rapids is an official historic district designated by the National Register of Historic Places.

The Lennox Area Development Corporation supplied a group survey in 2021, and residents repeatedly talked about the necessity for the central enterprise district to turn out to be extra of a vacation spot.

“Lennox residents would love a spot the place they’ll collect with family and friends and have distinctive experiences,” mentioned LADC president Sharese Ihnen. “With this program, we hope to begin a wider revitalization of the world and make it an much more engaging place to stay, work and play. A vibrant Main Street helps appeal to new households and encourages them to turn out to be invested and concerned in our group.”

The strategy is an accessible, efficient manner for communities to revitalize their downtowns, mentioned Jesse Fonkert, CEO of the Sioux Metro Growth Alliance.

“This is a high-impact technique that has a giant ripple impact,” he mentioned. “Not solely does it improve industrial exercise, however it fosters a downtown setting that we all know residents and guests are searching for in communities of all sizes.”

In Madison, the response to this system has been so sturdy that further funds have been allotted. After investing $50,000 in 2020 into the facade enchancment program, the group noticed greater than $250,000 invested in its downtown hall.

“It was superior,” mentioned Stemper, who’s increasing his restaurant. “There have been lots of locations downtown that did it, and it made downtown look rather a lot higher.”

Both Lennox and Dell Rapids have obtained curiosity from companies trying to apply and are excited to see the enhancements to their downtown areas.

If companies or constructing homeowners in both group are fascinated with making use of for this system, they’ll attain out to their respective SMGA financial improvement specialist: Ryan Solberg, [email protected], in Lennox and Sheldon Jensen, [email protected], in Dell Rapids.