By Emily Randall
Northeast News
Oct. 6, 2010

Say you’re an owner of a building on Independence Avenue in Historic Northeast, thinking it’s about time to do some painting on the exterior of your building, maybe replace signage outside your commercial building.

Northeast Chamber of Commerce President Bobbie Baker Hughes has a simple message for you: Free money.

Through the Kansas City, Mo., Façade Rebate Program, grants are available to businesses in nine defined areas of the city for improvements made to the exterior of businesses. The purpose of the Community Development Block Grant-funded program is to improve the attractiveness and commercial appeal of these nine business areas. On Independence Avenue, buildings situated between Olive and Indiana and Cypress and Van Brunt are eligible for the grants.

The building owner can receive a grant up to $5,000 or 50 percent of the total project cost — whichever is less — by doing any of the following improvements after they are approved by the city Housing and Community Development Department:

• Masonry repairs.

• Painting.

• Awnings and signs.

• Window and door replacements.

• Lighting and electrical needs.

• Landscaping.

• Parking lot repairs.

• Curbs and sidewalks repairs.

• Bars on windows (if approved).

• Roof repairs.

•Replacing/repairing/removing signage.

Improvements cannot have begun before city approval, and they must be complete within 180 days following approval. For a historic building, up to $10,000 is available, though improvements must meet historic preservation guidelines.

There are four grants available in the Independence Avenue area. One business owner, Alvaro Galindo, has already applied for the grant for his building at 3831 Independence Ave., which houses Charrito’s Restaurant and two other businesses. He plans to make parking lot repairs, get new signage and paint the façade.

This leaves three opportunities left on the avenue, which have to be taken advantage of by Dec. 31, 2010. A Northeast Chamber Design Review Committee is working to make sure none of these opportunities is wasted.

“Someone’s going to take advantage,” Baker Hughes said. “No one knows if the program will be available next year, so this is the year to do it. If I had a business on the avenue, I would do it.”

The ideal candidate, Baker Hughes said, would be a business owner who is planning to stay in business on the avenue for the long-term, owns his or her building, has opportunity for improvements that would make a big impact with a $5,000 grant and, in a perfect world, all four applicants would be located close to one another — leveraging collective impact.

Baker Hughes said this is an opportunity for Northeast business owners to get involved in the ongoing effort to create an international marketplace on Independence Avenue.

“I think we are seeing more businesses wanting to be involved,” she said. “They want to be successful. … Our businesses should know that if we stand together as a business district, we have the opportunity to better market our products and services, and that’s what we hope to be able to do.”

The Chamber Design Review Committee is willing to explain the entire process of applying to the Façade Rebate Program and help a business owner complete the application.

In addition to the Independence Avenue district, the Façade Rebate grants are available in the following areas:

• Fifth Street in from Cherry Street to Lydia Avenue in Columbus Park.

• The Truman Road Corridor.

• The 18th and Vine area.

• South Pospect.

• North Troost (30th-47th streets).

• South Troost (47th-85th streets).

• Main Street (27th-40th streets).

• Southwest Boulevard.

To contact the Chamber Design Review Committee, call (816) 231-3312.