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EDA grant program helping, evolving NEXT UP: THE ARTS? SEEKING GRANTS

EDA still fine-tuning its grant process

BY EMILY BATTLE

Date published: 3/21/2009

BY EMILY BATTLE

This summer, J. Brian's Tap Room plans to open an outdoor entertainment area behind its Hanover Street bar and restaurant.

The "backyard," as they're calling it, will have a stage, and the goal is to add a little music to downtown.

J. Brian's co-owner Jack Hyland said he hopes people strolling around near the bar will hear tunes slipping out from behind the building and enter to find good music, good beer and a well-behaved crowd.

Hyland's is one of the most recent projects helped along by a grant from Fredericksburg's Economic Development Authority.

Last fall, the EDA voted to award the project a total of $50,000 in grants, over two fiscal years.

Half of that money will go toward spiffing up two alleyways that lead to the backyard area from Caroline and Hanover streets with wrought-iron gates and brick walkways. J. Brian's is also selling individual, personalized bricks to help finance that part of the project.

The other half of the money will help pay for a stage for musical acts.

Hyland said the EDA's support was key to getting other investors to commit to the project, estimated to cost more than $250,000.

"As soon as that happened, they all said, if the city is willing to support it, let's go with it," he said.

The EDA has been able to help several projects like this get off the ground with small grants from the money it collects in fees off low-interest revenue bonds the state allows it to issue on behalf of city developers.

The $50,000 it has granted to J.Brian's, and another $50,000 it recently committed to help the Surgi-Center of Central Virginia move from Stafford County into the city, are among the larger grants it has made.

More common are grants of $10,000 or less, which have helped businesses like the Griffin Bookshop and nonprofits like the Fredericksburg Center for Creative arts make improvements to properties that are a visible part of major city thoroughfares--in these cases, downtown.

TIED TO JUMPSTART

Fredericksburg's EDA grant program is still evolving, but it started in 2005, after the EDA paid $170,000 for the JumpStart study, which recommended redevelopment options for specific city corridors.

The EDA then began making small grants to help property owners spruce up those corridors.

The following list of requests for the next cycle of EDA grants shows the variety of groups that seek its funds. Art First requested $5,000 to help it renovate the front retail space at 824 Caroline St., which it hopes to move to by April 1. The Free Lance-Star Companies requested $20,000 to help it extend Belman Road into land on which it is building a new printing facility in the Battlefield Industrial Park, saying the extension would open up two 5-acre parcels for further development. The Arts and Cultural Council of the Rappahannock requested $3,000 to help it pay for a conference of the Virginia Association of Local Arts Agencies at the Fredericksburg Area Museum in May. Mark Newton's Homecoming Pickin Party requested money to help it put on a bluegrass festival in September at Maury Stadium to benefit James Monroe High School athletics. The city of Fredericksburg requested $5,000 to pay for replacement front doors to the Central Rappahannock Regional Library building on Caroline Street. The Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce requested $5,000 to help it pay for its Leadership Fredericksburg program, which begins in May. The Fredericksburg Area Museum and Cultural Center requested $3,000 for its First Fridays at the museum program. The EDA's grant guidelines say the group wants to start a program to finance a piece of public, outdoor art in the city each year. City Councilman George Solley--who is on the city's arts commission--said he's pleased to see the EDA expand its definition of economic development to include arts projects, which he thinks help "build a climate" that supports a healthy downtown. EDA member Rick Pullen said the EDA is ready to commit around $30,000 a year toward public arts projects, but that it will need the arts commission to play a role in that by soliciting and helping to judge public art projects. --Emily Battle

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Date published: 3/21/2009

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