{"id":78301,"date":"2016-04-01T06:01:07","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T10:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=78301"},"modified":"2016-04-01T01:51:09","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T05:51:09","slug":"nearly-50-businesses-aided-by-citys-expanding-facade-grant-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2016\/04\/01\/nearly-50-businesses-aided-by-citys-expanding-facade-grant-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly 50 Businesses Aided by City’s Expanding Facade Grant Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Established in the 1980s, the City of Raleigh’s Facade Grant Program has doled out just under $700,000 to assist a total of 47 businesses in improving an assortment of building exteriors.<\/p>\n

While a list of Facade Grants obtained by The Record indicates a total of 117 recipients, this figure also includes two $5,000 grants issued to the City itself for improvements to Market & Exchange plazas.<\/p>\n

\"Rooftop<\/a>

James Borden \/ Raleigh Public Record<\/p>

Rooftop dining at the Raleigh Times, which received facade grants<\/p><\/div>\n

When these, along with 15 grant requests for $0 are removed, we are left with a total of 100 grants totaling $687,559. As would be expected, a number of local businesses received multiple grants.<\/p>\n

The largest overall recipient was Greg Hatem’s Empire Properties, which received grants for improvements on 21 properties totaling $172,750. Roughly, this means Empire has received about 20 percent of the overall grants issued, and about 25 percent of the total funds issued.<\/p>\n

Although The Record was able to reach some very kind people at Empire Properties, our inquiries were directed to Greg Hatem, who we were told was traveling.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

Wake County \/ Raleigh Public Record<\/h6>
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135 S Wilmington Street prior to facade rehab<\/p><\/div>

James Borden<\/h6>
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135 South Wilmington today<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

This was further than we got with the other grant recipients we reached out to, none of whom responded our inquiries.<\/p>\n

The next largest recipient was Hakan Market Partners, the owner of City Market and one of the many businesses that did not return our calls.<\/p>\n

Although Hakan had a number of $0 grants, they received a total of $85,000 in funds for 16 separate properties. This puts their percentages at 16 for the overall grants, and 12 for the overall funds.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

Google Maps<\/h6>
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City Market 2007<\/p><\/div>

James Borden \/ Raleigh Public Record<\/h6>
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City Market today<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

The only other real big-ticket recipient was Melvin’s Burgers on Hillsborough Street, which is now closed. Before going out of business, it received six grants totaling $58,768, or roughly 6 and 8 percent of the total grants and funds.<\/p>\n

Although the grants are set to cap out at $10,000, and all but one of them do, Meyer Liberman, Ronely LLC received a$35,000 grant for improvements at 2526 Hillsborough Street. It should be noted that 2526 Hillsborough is the address of the Electric Company Mall, which occupies a large portion of a city block.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

Wake County<\/h6>
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An old shot of the Electric Company Mall<\/p><\/div>

James Borden \/ Raleigh Public Record<\/h6>
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The Electric Company Mall today<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n