Downtown Bangor businesses can apply for funding to upgrade to their storefronts when a new grant program begins accepting applications this month.
The program, called “glow up grants,” will help downtown retail businesses upgrade signs and lettering, paint, awnings, banners, planters and seating. The program is administered by the Downtown Bangor Partnership and sponsored by Hermon-based DaVinci Signs.
It can help downtown business owners “if your store inside is beautiful, but you need some help on the outside because that’s what brings people in,” said Mandy Rogers, DaVinci’s marketing and sales director.
The grants replace a city-run facade grant program that was discontinued last year. The downtown district is no longer considered “blighted” by the federal department of Housing and Urban Development and therefore ineligible for the Community Development Block Grants that previously funded facade upgrades.
The Downtown Bangor Partnership will give out five grants up to $2,500, prioritizing projects that will make the biggest improvements to how a storefront’s exterior looks, according to Betsy Lundy, the organization’s executive director. Applications are due March 30 and will be evaluated by a committee that includes Lundy, Rogers, Bangor’s economic development director Anne Krieg, and several other community members.
The grants are part of a push to grow retail and foot traffic downtown, after residents and visitors indicated in a recent survey that they want more retail options in the city, Lundy said.
“Within a downtown, pedestrian-forward environment, that curbside styling is a really important component to how successful your retail is,” she said, but small businesses often don’t have the budget to upgrade a storefront’s exterior.
Rogers said she was inspired to help make downtown stores more eye-catching after working on a sign for Paloma’s, a gift shop on Central Street. She had never gone inside and realized there was an opportunity to help business owners bring more people into the store, she said.
The grants will primarily be funded by DaVinci, and the Downtown Bangor Partnership is also using some special assessment funds for the project, according to Lundy.
The city’s annual facade grant program ended recently after running since 2005. It paid for improvements to dozens of downtown buildings such as those housing The Rock & Art Shop, Mexicali Blues, Portland Pie Company, 11 Central, Benjamin’s, Harvest Moon Deli and the Bangor Opera House.
“On the upside, we’re no longer considered blighted,” Lundy said, “but that also means that those facade grants went away.”
Those Community Development Block Grants sometimes covered structural upgrades, like window replacements or masonry repairs, but the new program will address aesthetic changes, Lundy said.
Individual buildings with significant structural issues, such as degraded wood or windows, may still be eligible for a Community Development Block Grant after being inspected, but downtown isn’t eligible as a whole and that money can no longer be used for aesthetic improvements, she added.
“It feels a little bit to me like a tipping point,” Lundy said of the removal of downtown Bangor’s blighted status. “It feels like a lot of folks both locally and from afar have identified Bangor as a place to invest and redevelop historic buildings, and a place to open a small business.”
At the same time, it’s increasingly inexpensive to own a building or run a small business, so there’s still a need for help with maintenance costs, she added.
“Things have improved greatly, but it wouldn’t take much to push it backwards,” she said.
Rogers linked the effort to beautify downtown storefronts with a larger tourism push by the Downtown Bangor Partnership and business owners who want to encourage visitors passing through to stop and spend time downtown.
The nonprofit, which is funded in part by a downtown special assessment tax, plans to open a new welcome center for visitors later this year.
DaVinci Signs is working to get more businesses to help fund grants, so it’s possible more money could be offered in the future, Rogers said, adding that she hopes grants could become available every year.
