The Town of Oakland, MD in partnership with the Greater Oakland Business Association and the Oakland Arts & Entertainment District intends to apply for a block grant through the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) called Project Restore 2.0 and is urgently seeking interested parties to serve as sub-grantees for the funds, if awarded.
Project Restore 2.0 is a block grant to place-based economic development organizations to activate vacant buildings in the jurisdiction they serve. The organizations, if awarded, will sub-grant the funds to for-profit businesses, non-profit organizations, cooperatively-owned businesses, and social enterprises to start up or expand to vacant buildings.
The Town is accepting interested applicants as sub-grantees. The terms of the grant are below:
- The program intends to support downtown and historic commercial corridors; the focus of the program is on street-level retail that activates vacant buildings in a commercial corridor and supports a walkable business district.
- There is no minimum length of time the property has to have been vacant to be eligible. Verification of a vacant property will be provided by grantees if awarded.
- Only commercial uses of the vacant building are eligible.
- A vacant building does not mean the entire building has to be vacant. For example, if one property has three tenant spaces and two are vacant, the two vacant properties are eligible.
- During the grant term, eligible use of the funds includes:
- Rent payments
- Renovation and fit out of the building (interior and/or exterior)
- Furniture, fixtures, and equipment
- Property acquisition is not an eligible use of grant funds.
- By the end of the grant period, all sub-grantees will need to be operational in the formerly vacant building. (If you are a property owner interested in this program, a plan must be in place to have an operational business in the vacant space.)
If you are interested or to see if your building or business qualifies as a sub-grantee please fill out the form at https://forms.gle/x7CTUeWuBAdsVdmy8 by Friday, March 29. More information may be required through the application process. For questions concerning the project please contact Nicole McCullough at nicole@oaklandmd.com or at 301-334-2691.
