Downtown business owners will get a helping hand from the Town of Princeton to spruce up their storefronts.
“It’s a brand new program,” said Princeton Mayor Spencer Coyne.
“We are going to put some dollars on the table as an incentive for local businesses to improve their building fronts.”
The municipality plans to commit $100,000 over the next five years to make it possible for individual property owners to polish their sidewalk images.
There is $20,000 set aside for the program in 2021, in the recently released draft budget.
Coyne said the facade initiative dovetails with the municipality’s own downtown beautification efforts.
This year, the town spent more than $300,000 installing gateways and creating a bronze statue park that earned the town the trademark: “Bronze Statue Capital of Canada.”
The draft budget, with initial approval from council and now going into a consultation period, earmarks $730,000 for further core improvements, including a revamping of the visitor centre and related projects.
“We’ve been working on this for quite a while,” said Coyne.
There will be no thematic requirements for grant money, he said, and business owners will be allowed to express their own creativity.
Funding under the program will be available to business owners on Bridge Street and Vermilion Avenue, and more details will be released in the near future, he added.
Related: Town hall proposes five per cent tax increase for 2021
Related: Princeton officially becomes ‘Bronze Statue Capital of Canada’