By Moses Leos III
A matching grant program meant to revitalize downtown Kyle will not gain additional funding in fiscal year 2016.
That decision was made in September by the Kyle City Council as they chose to discontinue funding for the Downtown Business Revitalization Grant Program.
Instead, the city chose to roll over the remaining $50,000 left for the program for future applicants.
Kyle Mayor Todd Webster, who originally advocated for the program’s reinstatement last year, believes the city has outgrown the program’s inner workings.
“Structurally, it wasn’t properly developed,” Webster said. “The program worked ten years ago. It didn’t work this time.”
Kyle’s program, which was revived during the fiscal year 2015 budget session, was meant to further enhance downtown businesses in the Central Business District (CBD).
The matching grant program, which was created in 2005, focused on providing reimbursement for businesses to improve their facades in downtown. Businesses, in turn, would help the city in improving the downtown sector by attracting more people and business.
Applicants could have received up to $25,000 in matching grants, provided they give proof of their expenditures. Businesses with an investment of under $1 million could apply.
Originally, the program was shelved in 2009 due to a lack of funding. It was revived in 2015.
Several fundamental problems, according to Webster, plagued the program, which he said has been a “total failure.” One of those was an overall lack of interest from business owners in applying.
An additional issue was that current applicants haven’t shown a return on investment for their projects.
Three total applicants applied for the grant program. Those applicants included the owners of Desperados and Down South Railhouse.
But of the $100,000 appropriated for the program, only one $7,000 project has been completed. While Webster said the two remaining applicants “had every intention to do what it is they applied to do,” he said it was a “tall task” for them to meet the criteria needed for their “very large grants.”
Ultimately, Webster believes the return on investment equates to a rise in property values and improved economic activity surrounding the business.
“You can’t give money away. There has to be a return and we have to verify that,” Webster said. “That’s the nexus between the grant you give and eventual payback.”
For Webster, the issue lies in the rules, which he said were held over from the original 2005 application. But Webster said that it was a “mistake” to use the older grant rules.
One of those was a first come, first serve basis, instead of cycling the window for business owners to apply.
“The town was smaller at that time,” he said. “There wasn’t nearly the level of investment on Center Street as there is today.”
But as the city was going to pull the plug, several business owners began to express interest in applying. It led the city council to rollover funds from the current program into the next fiscal year.
Once the funds expire, however, the program would cease to exist.
Yet for Webster, the future of a potential program could revolve around defining parameters.
“Maybe with the rollover, there will be an opportunity to demonstrate that last year was an anomaly,” Webster said. “I’ll always be open for something that benefits the economic community.”
Downtown Revitalization Grant Program information session
Downtown business owners wanting to learn more about the Downtown Revitalization Grant Program can do so in via an information session hosted by the City of Kyle Friday. The session begins at 10 a.m. at Kyle City Hall council chambers.
