Politics & Government

Palatine Gives Downtown Facade Program A Facelift

Palatine's grant program to assist downtown business owners making facade improvements is being relaunched.

Downtown Palatine businesses will be able to receive matching grants of up to $50,000 from the the village to improve the front of their buildings.

has had a grant program for downtown since 2002, but the few businesses had taken advantage of the matching grants. Although technically still on the books, the program essentially was dormant.

Deputy Village Manager Mike Jacobs said two businesses recently expressed interest in the program. This week, the village board approved a new version of the grant program that increases the maximum amount of dollars from $10,000 to $50,000.

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"This is great that this has been there for quite some time and that there is an owner that is looking to reinvest significant dollars in the downtown," Palatine Mayor Jim Schwantz said. "That's a great sign of future investment."

A business owner planning to improve the front of a building downtown could receive up to $50,000 in matching dollars from Palatine depending on the size of the buildings frontage on a public street.

Find out what's happening in Palatinewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The grants would come from Palatine's downtown tax increment financing (TIF) district, not the village's general fund. The downtown tax increment financing district was created in 2002. The property tax revenue within the district was frozen at 2002 levels; increased property tax revenue since 2002 has gone into a TIF fund that is used for various public improvements within the district.

Only businesses located within the TIF district are eligible. The boundary of the TIF snakes through downtown and its boundaries include areas on both sides of the railroad tracks downtown.

Jacobs said officials are optimistic the program will be better utilized this time around.

"I think because of the amount of money that's available people can get more bang for their buck," Jacobs said.

The program lays out what sort of projects are available for grant funding — facade renovations and improvements, awnings, windows, doors, signs, attached lighting.

Expenses not covered by the grant program include any routine property maintenance, non-building improvements such as landscaping and any proposed improvements the Village Council "determines are not in keeping with the Village's Downtown Design Guidelines."


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