McCordsville has restarted a program offering assistance with building improvements in the town’s Broadway tax increment financing district, and properties outside the district may be eligible as well.
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McCORDSVILLE — The town of McCordsville has revived, refreshed and re-branded a program that aims to help businesses with exterior improvements.
The initiative is called the Building Improvement Grant, or BIG Program, administered by the McCordsville Redevelopment Commission.
It’s “designed to stimulate investment and initiate aesthetic improvements to buildings in McCordsville,” according to the program overview.
The town’s redevelopment commission allocated $30,000 for the program for 2022. The funds come from taxes paid on new development in a tax increment financing district consisting of areas off Broadway Street.
“We wanted to do this to give some people that might want to make improvements to their businesses along Broadway a chance to not spend so much, but make the improvements that they’ve been wanting to do,” said Alex Jordan, president of the redevelopment commission. “It gives people an opportunity to do some stuff that they might not have been able to fund without getting the match.”
Eligible properties must be in town. Properties outside of the Broadway tax increment financing district may be eligible if they benefit and serve the district.
A property’s primary purpose must be commercial activity in order to be eligible. Neither the property nor applicant can be delinquent in property taxes or town liens or fines or have outstanding code compliance issues.
BIG has two project tiers. For approved small to mid-sized projects, the program will reimburse 75% of total approved actual project costs up to a maximum of $1,000. For large projects, the program will reimburse 50% of total approved actual project costs up to a maximum of $5,000.
Some examples of eligible improvements are awnings, lighting, landscaping, doors, windows and exterior wall finishes. Examples of ineligible improvements include interior improvements, electrical work and security systems.
The town plans to outline the program’s application process on the town website, mccordsville.org.
“I think it’s a pretty exciting little program for this town to be able to work with local businesses and update them, and make them feel like they’re part of the town even more, make them know that we’ve got their back if they need it,” Jordan said.
Larry Longman, McCordsville Town Council’s liaison to the redevelopment commission, welcomes the program’s return. He recalled the town having a similar program several years ago that fizzled out due to a lack of participation.
“Even proactively asking businesses to utilize the program wasn’t yielding a lot of fruit,” Longman said.
He thinks it will be different this time.
“I think with the activity that we’re seeing along Broadway and the new interest with some of the buildings that are being purchased and redeveloped, we thought we’d put it back out there again and see if there’s interest from the owners’ side to partner up to make the improvements along Broadway,” Longman said.
He praised the redevelopment commission’s decision to not include signage for businesses’ names in the eligible improvements.
“A lot of times that’s the only thing a tenant has to do to start their business,” he said. “And I’m not saying we don’t want them to start their business there, but this is money directed at building facades, not someone’s advertisement. I don’t want public dollars spent on, really, advertising. I want something that makes the facility nicer.”
