Generally, the program works with businesses that are planning renovations or additions to their existing building and incentivizes exterior improvements that meet 8MBA's goals for the corridor, such as landscaping, façade repair and improvements, signage, and lighting. The program was first implemented in 2008 using funds from 8MBA's general ledger, but has since grown thanks to foundation support – $15,000 from Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan and $25,000 from MSHDA in 2014, and a $100,000 HUD Community Development Block Grant for Detroit facades in 2015. The program is overseen by the Eight Mile Boulevard Association (8MBA), an organization that views the 8 Mile corridor as an opportunity to connect the 13 municipalities that share its border. Depending on funding budgets and project needs, MDI is able to assist anywhere from 10-15 projects each year, making it one of the more robust programs of its kind in the city.Īlong the city's northern border, a façade improvement program similar to MDI's targets both city and suburban businesses. The program is a 50/50 matching grant of up to $50,000 supported by the Hudson-Webber Foundation.
Previous projects include Detroit Future City, Be Nice Yoga, Great Lakes Coffee, Marcus Market, and many others. New Center's Café Con Leche Nord and Midtown's Addison Eatery are in the works with anticipated signage and other improvements by spring. Unveiling its freshly minted visage in December 2014, Star Liquor on Woodward Avenue became the most recently completed project in the program. We will also be launching a Woodbridge façade matching grant program this year."
"Initially the program started out along the Woodward corridor," says Fields, "but we have expanded that to include the larger Midtown district, which includes New Center. Fields says the program has covered everything from simple signage, such as vinyl window graphics, to full-blown signage and entire renovations of a building's front façade. "The façade program is something that, as we're working with new and existing businesses in the area, we mention as something that we can provide them to enhance their property," says Elise Fields, a senior community planner with MDI who runs the program collaboratively with Sue Mosey, MDI's president. (MDI) has been operating a façade improvement program for 10 years "based on the premise that exterior improvements will stimulate additional private investment in the buildings and the surrounding area, and attract additional customers, thereby resulting in additional downtown economic opportunities." While it's shallow and rude to judge a person by his or her appearance, what about judging a community by the attractiveness of its buildings? A building's visual order can have an inordinate impact on a community, which is why a number of area community development organizations have used façade improvement programs to battle blight and spur neighborhood economic development.