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

March 21, 2009 2:56 am

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.

It has since been fine-tuning a set of rules for how that grant program will work.

All applications are scored based on how they will bring people to Fredericksburg, increase quality of life in the city and bring in new revenue that can relieve the tax burden on city homeowners.

Grants are made on a reimbursement basis, after receipts for the work completed are turned in.

HOW MUCH?

At its April meeting, the authority will probably start trying to determine exactly how much in grants it can afford to give out every year.

Chris Hornung, who was appointed to the EDA in June, serves as the group's treasurer, and has been working up a budget for the authority--something it hasn't had in years past.

Hornung said the EDA brings in about $165,000 a year in bond fees. That figure can change quickly, though, if a developer who has used those bonds decides to refinance.

In addition, the EDA makes about $30,000 in annual interest off the roughly $1 million balance it has in its bank accounts.

Next month, authority members will begin to talk about how much money they should be putting into the community each year.

OPPORTUNITY FOR MORE?

At a time when the recession has made money for both public and private development projects scarce, members of both the authority and the City Council say the EDA's funds could become even more important.

At meetings earlier this month, EDA members talked about trying to help the city get its downtown riverfront park project off the ground.

The City Council has bought three pieces of land for that park, but doesn't envision having the roughly $4 million it's estimated to cost to build it available any time soon.

There's no consensus yet on just how much the EDA would want to contribute. While city staff have proposed they could put in $25,000 to $50,000 to begin grading the land and shore up the riverbank, EDA member Rick Pullen has said he'd like to see the group spend as much as $100,000.

City Councilman Matt Kelly, on the other hand, doesn't see why the EDA can't just build the whole thing, leveraging the money it has now to borrow funds for the project.

"They have huge potential for leveraging that money for bigger projects if they wanted to," Kelly said. "They could take on such a bigger role."

City Council members can't tell the EDA how to spend its money, but they do appoint the board's members.

Mayor Tom Tomzak said the authority could play a role in helping the city to accomplish longstanding goals.

"Fredericksburg has a tendency to talk about things for a long time, and then there is just a real problem pushing them over the end of the goal line," he said. "The EDA has more potential now than it ever has to help that."

But one big project could decrease the availability of authority money for smaller projects, and EDA Chairman Conrad Warlick told council members earlier this month that he thinks those small grants can make a big difference.

"The whole character of Fredericksburg depends on a number of small businesses," Warlick said. "We are very sensitive to that, and want to help them."

Emily Battle: 540/374-5413
Email: ebattle@freelancestar.com