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BIG THINGS IN STORE City banking on new program to boost downtown WATERBURY — Lynn Ward, president and CEO of Waterbury Regional Chamber, and Joseph Violette, chamber director of public policy and economic development, walked by several vacant storefronts on Grand Street Wednesday, hoping a proposed program will soon rejuvenate the area. Ward and Violette are behind a proposed central business district investment program that looks to help property owners fill vacant ground-floor storefronts within much of the city’s downtown. The program would administer grants of $50 per square foot, with a maximum grant of $100,000 to eligible property owners who are looking to develop or restore new or existing groundfloor retail space. The Board of Aldermen on Monday will consider approving the program. If approved, the program would receive $1.5 million from the city’s federal $74 million American Rescue Plan allocation. Streets in the central business district include Bank, South Main, East Main, Grand, West Main, Meadow, Freight, State, Church, Leavenworth, Center and Brook. Roughly 35 of the more than 100 storefronts in the area are vacant, an increase of an unknown number of vacancies pre-COVID, Violette said. Special consideration would be given to property owners that have restaurant spaces, vacant properties adjacent to other vacant properties and those who are leasing space to minority- and women-owned businesses. Ward said she sees the program leading to a resurgence in the central business district by small business owners and property owners working together to improve their properties and attract more business. Ward and Violette on their walk Wednesday passed by John Bale Book Company, at 158 Grand St., one of the many storefronts in the central business district affected during the pandemic. The antiquarian bookstore closed its physical space in the pandemic’s early stages in 2020 and shifted its focus to online sales. “We are hoping now with this investment and the promotion that we’re going to be doing — sometimes people have an idea of starting a business but they just need that push, they need that little bit of incentive,” Ward said. “We are hoping that this is what will attract people.” Businesses outside of the central business district looking to move to a storefront in the area would be funded up to $10,000 for relocation expenses through the program. If approved next week, the program would be up and running in August, Ward said. Throughout the duration of the program, chamber officials would highlight vacant properties through open houses, social media campaigns and business development workshops for new businesses. Applications are expected to close June 30, 2023. The program would be a partnership between the Waterbury Regional Chamber of Commerce Foundation and city officials. A nine-member oversight and approval committee would be set up and be responsible for processing and vetting applications and disbursing funds. New tenants would be required to sign a 2-year lease on their storefronts, Ward said, while existing tenants would also sign a 2-year lease to guarantee it doesn’t expire within two years of the completed build out or upgrades. “This is perfect timing for this,” said local developer John Lombard, a senior partner of Lombard Group. “This is a shot-in-the-arm that downtown needs right now. Explained properly and put the opportunity out there, tenants are going to start to have an interest in coming down.” Getting people back to work following the pandemic has been a priority for city officials, Mayor Neil M. O’Leary said. The mayor said he believes the program would go a long way in accomplishing that and could lead to other programs being created to support downtown properties. “We are putting in millions of dollars into the central business district,” he said. “We are trying to protect it. We are trying to put the right businesses in there. We are trying to move Waterbury in the right direction.” This article orignally appeared in the Republican American on Thursday, July 14, 2022.
BIG THINGS IN STORE
City banking on new program to boost downtown
WATERBURY — Lynn Ward, president and CEO of Waterbury Regional Chamber, and Joseph Violette, chamber director of public policy and economic development, walked by several vacant storefronts on Grand Street Wednesday, hoping a proposed program will soon rejuvenate the area.
Ward and Violette are behind a proposed central business district investment program that looks to help property owners fill vacant ground-floor storefronts within much of the city’s downtown. The program would administer grants of $50 per square foot, with a maximum grant of $100,000 to eligible property owners who are looking to develop or restore new or existing groundfloor retail space.
The Board of Aldermen on Monday will consider approving the program. If approved, the program would receive $1.5 million from the city’s federal $74 million American Rescue Plan allocation.
Streets in the central business district include Bank, South Main, East Main, Grand, West Main, Meadow, Freight, State, Church, Leavenworth, Center and Brook. Roughly 35 of the more than 100 storefronts in the area are vacant, an increase of an unknown number of vacancies pre-COVID, Violette said.
Special consideration would be given to property owners that have restaurant spaces, vacant properties adjacent to other vacant properties and those who are leasing space to minority- and women-owned businesses.
Ward said she sees the program leading to a resurgence in the central business district by small business owners and property owners working together to improve their properties and attract more business.
Ward and Violette on their walk Wednesday passed by John Bale Book Company, at 158 Grand St., one of the many storefronts in the central business district affected during the pandemic. The antiquarian bookstore closed its physical space in the pandemic’s early stages in 2020 and shifted its focus to online sales.
“We are hoping now with this investment and the promotion that we’re going to be doing — sometimes people have an idea of starting a business but they just need that push, they need that little bit of incentive,” Ward said. “We are hoping that this is what will attract people.”
Businesses outside of the central business district looking to move to a storefront in the area would be funded up to $10,000 for relocation expenses through the program.
If approved next week, the program would be up and running in August, Ward said. Throughout the duration of the program, chamber officials would highlight vacant properties through open houses, social media campaigns and business development workshops for new businesses.
Applications are expected to close June 30, 2023.
The program would be a partnership between the Waterbury Regional Chamber of Commerce Foundation and city officials. A nine-member oversight and approval committee would be set up and be responsible for processing and vetting applications and disbursing funds.
New tenants would be required to sign a 2-year lease on their storefronts, Ward said, while existing tenants would also sign a 2-year lease to guarantee it doesn’t expire within two years of the completed build out or upgrades.
“This is perfect timing for this,” said local developer John Lombard, a senior partner of Lombard Group. “This is a shot-in-the-arm that downtown needs right now. Explained properly and put the opportunity out there, tenants are going to start to have an interest in coming down.”
Getting people back to work following the pandemic has been a priority for city officials, Mayor Neil M. O’Leary said. The mayor said he believes the program would go a long way in accomplishing that and could lead to other programs being created to support downtown properties.
“We are putting in millions of dollars into the central business district,” he said. “We are trying to protect it. We are trying to put the right businesses in there. We are trying to move Waterbury in the right direction.”
This article orignally appeared in the Republican American on Thursday, July 14, 2022.