By Peter Morill
Over the past few years, GRIA has worked tirelessly to have many of the neighborhood’s historic corner stores rezoned to once again permit commercial activities. Anyone who lives in Remington has seen corner stores with worn out signs, flaking paint, and boarded up windows. Now that many of these properties have been successfully rezoned, GRIA is taking the next step by offering a matching grant to help property owners improve their commercial storefronts. GRIA was awarded $50,000 of Baltimore Regional Neighborhood Initiative funds from the Maryland Department of Housing & Community Development for the creation of the Remington Commercial Façade Improvement Program.
Grants worth up to $20,000 are available to owners and tenants of commercial properties for the purpose of making physical improvements to the exterior of their stores. The grants can be used for a wide range of projects including new signage, window repair and replacement, lighting, painting, and more. The grant program can only be used for exterior improvements on street-facing facades of a property and cannot be used for interior or other projects that are not visible from the street. Applicants will need to provide matching funds. For grants under $10,000, applicants will need to provide 25% of the total project cost and for grants more than $10,000, applicants will need to provide 50% of the total project cost.
More information on the grant program, along with project applications, will be available on the GRIA website shortly. In the meantime, please e-mail facadegrant@griaonline.org
for more information.
for more information.
