The Office of Downtown Development (ODD) is offering grants to improve buildings in downtown Columbus.
ODD Executive Director Ike DeClue and ODD advisor Kiley Broad attended a meeting of the Columbus Redevelopment Commission to go over the reimbursable, matching grants that go up to $15,000, with some exceptions.
The redevelopment commission approved funding for the grants in December of 2023.
“Many communities have a facade grant program, which deals solely with exteriors, paint jobs, windows, doors, some mortar work — we wanted to include some projects within the buildings, knowing that old buildings are expensive to maintain,” DeClue said.
To participate in the program an eligible property has to be within the downtown improvement area, have commercial activity as its primary purpose and not be delinquent in property taxes, city liens and fines, or have any outstanding code compliance issues, according to ODD.
The downtown improvement area is defined as being from 11th Street down to city hall, with “kind of a dog-leg down Second Street,” according to Broad.
All submitted applications will be reviewed by a five-member committee that’ll meet quarterly before being evaluated for funding and recommended to the ODD board for approval.
Applications, limited at one per year and identified by the address, will ask for pre-project and post-project pictures, along with a copy of the quote of the work that the grants will be based on.
“The overall goal is to increase the vibrancy in the appearance of downtown, while also raising the tax base of the buildings inside the designated area,” Broad told the commission.
While the grants are considered commercial loans, ODD officials say they may expand to providing residential loans as they continue to gauge interest in the program.
Broad said the grants up to $15,000 “are really just a starting point to gauge a tenant or property owner’s interest” and that they may be willing to go higher if it made sense.
“In our minds, it could vary from that, but only as an exception, not as a standard figure,” Broad said in response to a question from Redevelopment Commission President Al Roszczyk about how flexible they would be. “The ($15,000) was a conservative number to start with and we’ll see where it goes from there.”
The range for similar grant programs around the state is between $15,000 and $20,000, according to DeClue.
Just over 50% of the second floors of the buildings located in the stretch from First to Seventh streets are being used, where the majority of the city’s historic buildings are located, DeClue told the commission.
Not only that, but some of them haven’t been in use since the 1950s or before, with no electrical infrastructure whatsoever, according to ODD officials.
“A lot of these buildings require an investment equal to the value of the building that’s already there,” Broad said. “Because a lot of these upstairs haven’t been occupied except for the 1950s — there are others that haven’t been occupied for 20 years before that.”
Broad said of the number of grants that they plan to give out, that ODD would “welcome as many as can be brought to our doorstep.”
More information about the grants and how to apply can be found at oddcolumbus.com/grants.
