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Bayshore/Gateway Triangle residents are hitting the grants.
Collier County commissioners recently approved two site improvement grants, a sweat equity grant and the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle Community Redevelopment Agency’s first shoreline improvement grant.
For business owner Dwight Yerger, 56, the approval was welcomed news.
“It was a painless process really,” said Yerger, whose office building at 1570 Shadowlawn Drive will get a facelift thanks to the grant. “As long as you follow what they’re asking for.”
Since 2002, the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle Community Redevelopment Agency, or CRA, has set aside $100,000 in its budget for the Site Improvement Grant Program.
Owners can receive up to $8,000 apiece, in a matching grant, if their improvement plans coincide with redevelopment efforts in the area. The program is also open to the residential-rental market.
But property owners have to put up $2 for every dollar the CRA awards — or at least $16,000 to get the full grant.
“It’s a good building, but it (the grant) is going to make it better,” said Yerger, whose $24,029 netted him the full $8,000 grant. “We’re updating the building, which means a lot. Hopefully, it will help improve the neighborhood.”
Some of the building’s upgrades include a new paint job, replacement of all the windows, resurfacing the parking lot, a new front door and a new awning.
According to CRA operations analyst Sue Trone, the most recent batch of grants won’t be the last ones submitted this summer.
In October, the CRA’s Shoreline Improvement Grant and the Sweat Equity Improvement Grant debuted.
The Shoreline Improvement Grant is aimed at helping Bayshore waterfront property owners apply for and receive financial assistance to install or fix up their sea walls or rip rap as part of a stormwater and soil erosion prevention program. Residents can apply for the $5,000 grant year-round, but once they get it the funding is limited to two years.
The Sweat Equity Improvement Grant gives homeowners with qualified projects up to $1,000 in materials to fix up, clean up or beautify their homes and is aimed at helping residential property owners that don’t have the financial resources to pay for a major residential renovation project.
The catch is that residents have to put in the time and or have the ability to provide the “sweat equity” and do the work themselves.
News of the program has started to spread and the CRA has two separate Sweat Equity grants already in the pipeline for the June 10 County Commission meeting — pending approval by the CRA advisory board, Trone said.
For more information of on the CRA’s grant programs visit www.colliercra.com or call 643-1115.
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